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By the same Author. 



Redeemer and Redeemed: 

An investigation op the atonement and 
Eternal judgment. 

i2mo. Cloth. $1.75. 



LEE AND Shepard, Publishers, 

BOSTON. 



SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



BY 



/ 

CHARLES BEECHER. 



fj ydp dnoKapaSoKia rfji KTiaeiog rijv dTTOKaXvtpiv ToJv v'loiv 
Tov 0eov dTTCKSixcTai. 

For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the 
MANIFESTATION of the sons of God. — Rom. viii. 19. 



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BOSTON: 
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. 

NEW YORK: CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM. 
1879. 






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COPYRIGHT, 

1878, 
Bt Lee and Shepard. 



Electrotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
19 Spring Lane. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. 1 PAGE 

I. The Movement, 9 

II. Mysterious Phenomena, 16 

III. Planchette, . 25 

IV. Second Sight, 37 

V. Visions, 42 

VI. Remarkable Conversions, 50 

VII. Historic Method, 55 

VIII. Analogy, 59 

IX. Tableaux, 66 

X. Eden, 74 

XI. Theories, . .82 

XII. The Hypothesis, 96 

XIII. Primeval Spiritualism, 113 

XIV. The Dawn of Prophecy, 122 

XV. The Titans, 132 

XVI. Eisft OF Polytheism, 144 

XVII. "The Friend," . . 151 

XVIII. The Exodus, 161 

XIX. The Tabernacle, 165 

XX. Balaam, 173 

XXI. Canaan, 180 

7 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAP. .5 PAGE 

XXII. The Judges, . . . . . . . .187 

XXIII. Solomon, 194 

XXIV. The Prophets, .203 

XXV. The Exile, 208 

XXVI. The Keturn, 213 

XXVII. Maccabean Era, 220 

XXVIII. The Ancient City, 226 

XXIX. The Incarnation, 237 

XXX. The Ordeal, 243 

XXXI. Regeneration, 257 

XXXII. Transfiguration, 269 

XXXIII. The Veil rent, 273 

XXXIV. Aphelion, 281 

XXXV. Exorcism, . . . 288 

XXXVI. Eschatology, 299 

XXXVII. Perihelion, 310 



SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE MOVEMENT. 

THIS work is dedicated to all sincere Spiritualists 
of every name. It is not intended to be contro- 
versial. If passages of a polemic spirit occur, it will 
be through inadvertence, and they are apologized for 
in advance. 

In every soul there is an invisible realm, a heavens 
and earth of thought, a universe within. The author 
describes his own. The right ascension and declination 
of his readers' inner constellations are not given in any 
tables; but these rise above his own mental horizon. 
This, if one can see it, is his home, his inner world. It 
is not a world without a sun. " Lord, thou hast been 
our dwelling-place in all generations ! " The one thing 
which he feels that he knows by direct and certain 
knowledge is God, filling his inner sky with hght, Hfe, 
and love. 

It is sometimes said we know nothing of matter or 
mind but their properties. But to taste the sweetness 
of honey is to taste honey ; tasting is knowing. So 
the soul knows the goodness of God by absolute contact. 
" I in thee, and thou in me," said Jesus. It is some- 
times said that one ought to reason coldly on such topics, 

9 



10 SPrRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

as on the problems of algebra. But can a child, hearing 
vague reports of his father's death, discuss the probabili- 
ties dispassionately ? Vague rumors have gone abroad 
that God is dead ; can the soul coldly discuss the possi- 
bilities of such spiritual orphanage ? No person can be 
coldly intellectual on questions where his affections are 
vitally interested. The most liberal minds are sensitive 
when their profoundest beliefs on such topics are rudely 
assailed. Belief is next of kin to love. Thrust a mag- 
net into the debris of a machine-shop, it will come out 
tufted with iron-filings. The magnet loves those iron- 
filings. So magnetic minds are tufted with ideas ; and 
there are minds in every age that feel a sweet, loving 
attraction for thoughts of God. " How precious are thy 
thoughts unto me, O God ! " It is a simple fact of soul- 
history. " O God, thou art my God ; my soul thirsteth 
for thee, my flesh longeth for thee ! " 

Now the difficulty lies in comparing the inner thought- 
world of one mind with that of another. When the 
rumor comes in under the bright arching sky of the inner 
thought-realm, full of sunshine, that other souls are 
saying, God is dead, one knows not what to think of it. 
Rumors are unreliable. Words are ambiguous. What 
is it that is actually taking place in those inner thought- 
worlds out yonder ? And can they see or know what is 
taking place in this thought- world in here ? The task is 
to embody one's conceptions in words which will be 
mutually intelligible in his own thought -sphere, and in 
other thought-spheres. Imprisoned in his castle, words 
are but carrier-pigeons, with messages tied under their 
wings. What if the message come untied in mid-air ? 
What if some fairy substitute another ? What does the 
word red mean to persons affected with color-blindness, 
or yellow^ or green ? What is the seeming length of a 
second, or a minute, to minds of different make ? What 



THE MOVEMENT. 11 

inward differences in the conceptions of melody, and 
harmony, of fragrance, taste, and touch, of number, size, 
and relation, may there be in minds with different per- 
ceptive faculties ? And what different ideas, and asso- 
ciations, may the word GoD call up in minds of different 
original configuration, and educational development? 
May not a large portion of the controversy agitating the 
world even on the highest of all themes arise from this 
source ? 

The author would be presumptuous indeed should he 
attempt to give laws to the inner thought-realm of other 
people. He meditates a humbler but more useful task, 
to invite them to inspect his own. He who sets forth a 
theory of the universe, exhibits necessarily a picture or 
study of his own interior skies, his thought-world. And 
it is valuable in proportion to the distinctness and cor- 
rectness of the transfer, on the same principle that the 
dissection of the hving body is useful in the study of 
physiology. 

There will doubtless be much in this little treatise 
that may seem improbable to most readers, whether 
viewed from the standpoint of science, or of the conven- 
tional belief. The author speaks only for himself. No 
person is responsible for his sentiments. He does not 
speak as the representative of the Church visible or in- 
visible, nor of his professional brethren, nor of his kin- 
dred. He wishes first to be able to think out a system, 
which shall seem consistent, and which shall include all 
facts, so fai; as known to him ; and secondly, to find 
words which shall be unambiguous, with which to show 
the same to others. 

The negations of other minds may be either their non- 
seeings of what he sees, or their seeings of his non- 
seeiugs or mis-seeings. Of course, he will earnestly 
consider them. The positive affirmations of other minds, 



12 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

either their more distinct seeings, or additional seeings, 
will be joyfully welcomed. 

It is, in one sense, of little importance what one soul, 
shut up in its watch-tower, thinks. And yet as the shore 
of ocean is composed of insignificant grains of sand, 
the ocean itself of insignificant drops of water, so the 
sum of human attainment consists in the combined work- 
ings of multitudinous insignificant minds. Every suc- 
cessful effort to clothe in words that will not be generally 
misunderstood, the emotions, experiences, and behold- 
ings of an earnest spirit imprisoned in its fortress of 
flesh, cannot but be of value. 

No theme can be better adapted to call forth such an 
expression of one's inner self, than that indicated by the 
title of this work. Modern spiritualism, as it is called, 
raises about every question that has ever interested and 
agitated the human breast. Is there a spirit-world, or 
are we, like John Olden Barneveld, to shut up our view 
" within the flaming walls of this life ? " If there be a 
spirit-world, what are its laws, its history, and its rela- 
tions to our present mode of existence ? What is this 
material system, and what are its laws, and what is mat- 
ter itself, and the difference, if any, between the ultimate 
cause of the phenomena of matter, and that of the 
phenomena of mind? Is there an all-comprehending 
plan underlying the history of the mental and physical 
universe, or is all resolvable into mere blind force or law ? 
AH these and kindred questions come up naturally. 
Whatever else may be true of spiritualistic literature, 
it possesses the merit of a certain sort of comprehensive- 
ness. The movement is remarkable, as that of a large 
class of the common people, taking hold of and discuss- 
ing with apparent relish, almost every topic in philosophy, 
science, and theology, ever mooted in the history of the 
world. 



THE MOVEMENT. 13 

If the movement be prompted by spirits, it is remark- 
able ; if it be not, it is certainly none the less remarkable. 
If matter thinks, which is the same as to say, if thought 
is simply molecular change, — if matter thinks, it is re- 
markable that it thinks persistently and obstinately that 
there is a spirit- world. 

The movement is a remarkable one also, if not the re- 
sult of spiritual agency, from the persistency with which 
such agency is affirmed, through what are regarded as 
merely subjective phenomena. The author has never 
heard of a case in which these subjective laws or influ- 
ences, whatever they are, have obtained a response stat- 
ing the non-spiritual origin of the movement. If the 
phenomena are subjective, one would think circles might 
be formed among those who accept this explanation, in 
which some such response might be obtained as this, 
" There are no spirits ; the so-called spiritual manifesta- 
tions are all of material origin." The author has never 
heard of any such response being received. 

The movement is also remarkable, because it is a 
religion — a household religion, which is rapidly extend- 
ing throughout Christendom. It is not in its published 
literature, its periodicals, its lectures, and its public me- 
diums, that the greatest strength of the movement lies. 
It is in its private, or family circles. Directions are 
given for forming such circles, and in one out of every 
four famihes, it is said, a medium will be found. The 
family circle is to the spiritualist household what "family 
prayers " are to Christian households generally. 

The movement is also remarkable from the extremes 
of thought and character represented in it. The ma- 
jority of spiritualists may be uneducated, illiterate, un- 
refined, but not all. There is a respectable minority of 
high culture, and eminent literary and even scientific 
attainment. The majority may seem to occupy a posi- 



14 ' SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

tion hostile to Christianity, at least in any of its existing 
visible embodiments, but there is a respectable minority 
who breathe a Christian spirit, avow many sentiments in 
common with the evangelical communions, and wish to 
be known as Christian Spiritualists. 

And above all, it is remarkable because that portion of 
the body calling themselves Christian Spiritualists, an- 
tagonizing certain obnoxious features of the movement, 
proclaim the movement itself, minus those features, to 
be a revival of primitive Christianity, a restoration of 
apostolic gifts ; nay, some go so far as to claim, the actual 
resurrection of the dead, the second advent of Christ, 
and the inauguration of the millennium. In the writ- 
ings of such, the Bible is constantly appealed to and 
copiously quoted, with apparent earnestness of convic- 
tion. Sermons are preached, revival hymns are sung, 
and arguments and appeals made, which, upon a com- 
mon audience, are adapted to produce a great effect. 
Many sincere Christians, especially those who have lost 
friends, are identified with the movement. Such a 
development, notwithstanding all its admixtures of in- 
congruous elements, is worthy of serious attention. In 
the midst of so many conflicting opinions it would be 
folly to dogmatize ; the utmost any individual can hope 
for is, to contribute something to aid those who are en- 
deavoring to turn the movement in right directions. 
Among the points held in common by spiritualists may 
be mentioned the following : 

1. The real objective existence of spiritual beings, in 
great numbers, with diversities of physical, intellectual, 
and moral character. 

2. Spirits can and do communicate with us in various 
ways. 

3. There are different spheres, or grades, or ranks, in 
the spirit-world. 



THE MOVEMENT. 15 

4. ^The communications or revelations we receive are 
reliable and good in proportion as they emanate from 
spirits of a higher sphere, and commend themselves to 
our reason and conscience. To obtain manifestations of 
truly good spirits, we must be in sympathy with them. 

5. The prophets and apostles were mediums, and their 
communications are to be judged on the same principles 
as all other spirit manifestations, by their accordance 
with our best reason and conscience, 

6. Many, perhaps most spiritualists would be willing 
to add, that the Bible is substantially true as a history, 
and contains the best religion yet known, and a code of 
morals that cannot be shown to have any defects. 

7. Death effects no change in character, but such as a 
man is here he finds himself in the next life ; and his 
situation will be decided by the law of elective affinity. 

' 8. While there are many spheres, all spirits may be 
classified dynamically in three classes — celestial, above 
matter; terrestrial, in matter; subterrestrial, beneath 
matter, that is, unable to sway it except through the or- 
ganism of the living. These three most general classes 
are conventionally named Heaven, Earth, and Hades. 



16 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER II. 

MYSTEEIOFS PHENOMENA. 

IN the present chapter it is proposed to give a few 
specimens of the evidence of the reality of spiritual 
manifestations. It may not appear conclusive to other 
minds. The writer speaks only for himself. He would 
premise, however, that there never has been in his 
mind any sense of improbability of the existence and 
agency of spirits. All the great religions of the world 
may be wrong in things where they differ, but it 
seems improbable they are wrong in things where they 
agree. This world is crowded with so many different 
forms of life, it has never seemed improbable that other 
woiids or spheres should be, and that among them there 
should be those possessed of organisms inappreciable by 
our present senses ; and that they should be able to com- 
municate with us by natural laws to us unknown. 

This seems no more incredible than the hypothesis of 
the existence of ultimate particles of matter. Able 
minds, such as Leibnitz, Boscovitch, Priestley, Faraday, 
and others, have maintained that all material phenomena 
can be accounted for on the theory that particles are 
mathematical points of force. Hickock calls dead atoms 
'' deadheads." Huxley characterizes them " as pure 
assumptions, as the spirits of the spiritualist." Herbert 
Spencer says, " The hypothesis of molecules and atoms 
enables the chemist to work out multitudinous inter- 
pretations that are verified by experiment ; but the ulti- 



MYSTEKIOUS PHENOMENA. 17 

mate unit of matter admits of no consistent concep- 
tion." * 

In vain we increase the power of the microscope. No 
eye has ever seen an ultimate particle. Yet science 
accepts them as a probable hypothesis. One can draw 
convenient diagrams, with colored cubes and other 
forms, and show the binary, ternary, and other com- 
pounds so deftly. The chemist is like " the man under 
authority who saith to one go, and he goeth, to another 
come, and he cometh, and to his servant do this, and he 
doeth it." 

The spiritualist does the same in respect to the hy- 
pothesis of spirit agency, with this advantage, that 
whereas no one has ever claimed to have seen an ulti- 
mate particle, men have in ever}' age claimed to have 
seen spirits. The abstract probability of the existence 
and agency of spirits is therefore equal to, if not greater 
than that of the existence of ultimate particles of dead 
matter. 

This being premised, the following are offered as spec- 
imen facts, occurring mostly within the range of the 
author's observation, or that of intimate friends. As a 
pastor, the author has found in different communities 
where he has resided more or less of latent belief on this 
subject ; a sort of hidden folk-lore ; so that he has re- 
ceived the impression that there are few families which 
have not in their possession incidents of second-sight, 
ghosts, apparitions, or other mysterious phenomena, 
which yet,^ for various reasons, they shrink from making 
public. 

The first class includes cases occurring in open day- 
light (as well as in the night), involving a variety of 
phvsical phenomena, where the spirits producing them 
appear to be, and in some cases confess themselves to be, 

* Studies of Sociology, p. 311. 



18 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

of a low grade, and to act from no quite intelligible 
motives. 

The following narrative was recently made to the 
aut'hor by Prof. Austin Phelps, D. D., of Andover, and 
is given as nearly as possible in his own language : 

" The circumstances to which you refer took place 
when I was just commencing at Andover, and at a time 
when I was much pressed with official duties ; some time 
I think in 1850 or 1851. They covered a period of 
about seven months. My father was residing in Strat- 
ford, Connecticut, with his second wife, who also had 
several children by a former husband. She was at that 
time in ill-health from the first approaches of the 
malady (which we did not understand at the time) by 
which she was subsequently bereft of reason. 

" My father had paid little attention to such matters 
previous to his coming to Stratford, except that he had 
tried to mesmerize my brother, who suffered from heart- 
disease, and had afforded him some relief. The phe- 
nomena of spirit-rapping he had only noticed as items 
of news in the papers of the day. The greater part of 
the strange occurrences did not come under my own 
observation, but were narrated to me by him, in whose 
testimony I confide as much as in my own. I cannot 
pretend to give dates, or the precise order of events, but 
some of the main facts as they occur to my recollection. 

" The first thing that took place of an unusual na- 
ture, was on a certain Sunday. The family, iu eluding 
the servants, according to custom, had been to church, 
leaving the house locked up. On returning, they found 
the front door wide open. The first thought was that 
robbers had been there. No signs, however, of their 
presence appeared, on searching the rooms, until they 
came to my father's room, and there they found three 



MYSTERIOUS PHENOMENA. 19 

full suits of his clothes stuffed out with old clothes, &c., 
and laid out side by side upon the floor, with boots, hat, 
&c., like a row of corpses, somewhat as I have seen 
them after a railroad collision. This seemed very 
strange ; but the general impression was that it might 
be a roguish trick of the boj^s, or of some one unknown. 
In the course of the day, as my father was walking 
across the parlor, no other person being in the room, a 
key was thrown from behind over his head, and fell on 
the floor at his feet. He picked it up and put it in his 
pocket. Soon after a nail was thrown in the same way. 
In the evening, as the family were sitting together, sud- 
denly a turnip fell from the ceiling in their midst. Then 
they began to hear little raps in various directions. 
They tried to trace them, but could not. 

" Things went on for some time. Noises were heard 
in different parts of the house. At the dinner-table, 
the spoons would fly up out of the vessel and fall upon the 
table. The forks would do the same. Once my father 
took the spoons, and the servant put them in the closet 
and locked the door, and brought him the key. In the 
space of ten minutes, the spoons were back on the table 
again, without visible agency. Father then took them 
himself and put them in the closet and locked the door, 
and in ten minutes, without any one seeing them come, 
they were on the table again. He unlocked the door ; 
they were not there. 

" Meanwhile the knockings, &c., continued day and 
night, and ^many of the neighbors hearing what was 
going on, began to come in to see and hear. As a 
specimen, a thing like this took place : One day at din- 
ner, a package of six or eight silver spoons were all at 
once taken and doubled up — bent double by no visible 
agency. My father had them placed in the closet, 
locked the door, and kept the key himself. A sister 



20 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

of Ms was there at the time on a visit, and a neighbor 
came in inquiring about what she had heard. The sister 
got the key, went to get the spoons, unlocked the door, 
and there lay the spoons as straight as before, with no 
dent or crease, or sign of having been bent. This is 
only a specimen. There were dozens of such events. 

" Of course, there was much excitement and talk, and 
all sorts of opinions were expressed. Many most un- 
justly attributed it to my father's wife and her children. 
It was known that she did not like Stratford, and was 
desirous of removing to Philadelphia. It was also no- 
ticed that the phenomena were in some way connected 
with her and her children, rather than with my father 
and his children. In modern parlance, they were the 
mediums. She was a Christian woman, member of the 
Episcopal church, and much grieved at the charge, and 
denied it in the most solemn manner. Indeed, the whole 
visitation was made a subject of daily prayer in the 
family. And all cognizant with the facts are perfectly 
certain that neither she nor her children were con- 
sciously implicated. If they were mediums it was by 
no will or wish of their own. It was more like a case 
of possession. 

" For example, one of the most startling occurrences 
was this : One day my father heard one of the children 
crying, out in the yard, (it was the boy whose presence 
had been most followed by the knockings, &c.) The 
boy was found up in an apple-tree, tied fast with a rope, 
in a situation where it seemed impossible he could have 
gotten by himself, or by any human agency. 

" For some time after these things commenced, even 
after the idea of communicating by the alphabet had 
occurred to him, my father resolved to have nothing to 
do with it. But at length he became weary, and re- 
solved to try. Pursuing the usual course, as he had 



MYSTERIOUS PHENOMENA. 21 

seen described in the papers, he met with a ready af- 
firmative response, (three raps,) and wrote down intel- 
ligent sentences. 

"The first question of course was, ' Who are you?' 
To this various answers were given, sometimes one 
name, sometimes another, all of parties deceased, but 
most frequently came the name of a brother of Mrs. 
Phelps. The next inquiry was as to his object, or what 
was the matter with him. His answer was in substance : 
1. That he was in hell. 2. That Mrs. Phelps had been 
cheated in the settlement of an estate by a person 

named D'S . My father not recognizing the name, 

which was French, asked his wife if she knew such a 
person. She said no, and asked how the name was 
spelled. He spelled it, and she said, 'Oh, you pro- 
nounced it wrong : it was D'S ;' giving the correct 

pronunciation; and she remembered there was such a 
person — a head clerk in a firm .that had been in some 
way concerned in the settlement. My father went to 
Philadelphia and made an investigation of the facts. He 
found evidence sufficient to confirm the suspicion of 
fraud excited by the communications, but nothing suf- 
ficient to convict in a court of justice ; nothing, in short, 
resulting in rectifying the settlement. 

" On one occasion my father was sitting in a small 
ante-room, about five feet square, at a little desk where 
he kept his accounts. He was alone. An incessant 
rapping being kept up, he at length said, ' What do 
you want ?,' and on using the alphabet, the answer was 
spelled out, ' Put your hand under the table.' He did 
so, and his hand was grasped by a human hand, warm 
and soft like mine. 

"At my father's request I went to Stratford to see 
and examine into the case. I went with strong prepos- 
sessions, having heard what was said about my mother- 



22 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

in-law, — that it was probably in some way contrived 
by her and her children. I was soon entirely unde- 
ceived, and convinced that I had been unjust to her, 
and that she and her children were wholly innocent of 
any complicity. The phenomena that I witnessed were 
not so striking as some that my father told me of. 
I was accompanied by a brother of my father, Dr. 
Phelps, who was far from bein^ credulous or visionary — 
in fact, tending rather to materialism than to belief in 
the supernatural. 

" We occupied the same room, and slept soundly till 
midnight, when we were awakened by what seemed like 
a deep sigh breathed through the key-hole, and re- 
peated several times quite loudly. Then there was a 
tremendous hammering, outside our door, in the hall. 
We got up, struck a light, went into the next room 
where father slept, and asked him what that noise was. 
He answered, ' You know as well as I do ; judge for 
yourselves.' We went and examined, and found on 
the banister marks and dents, as if it had been beaten 
with a hard substance. We went up-stairs and found 
the servants' doors locked, the children all asleep, and 
no evidence whatever to connect the noise with any of 
them. The noises continued at intervals till morning. 
The next day we searched the house thoroughly, but 
found nothing, except in the attic there was a suit of 
father's clothes stuffed as before described, and stretched 
out on the floor. 

" The next night the noises were still more abundant. 
' Let us follow the noise,' I said. ' I will go inside the 
door, you outside.' We followed till we came to the 
apartment of the oldest daughter. It was in the 
evening, about nine o'clock. With her permission I 
stepped inside the room, and the doctor staid outside. 
The knocking came on the door between us. Said I, 



MYSTERIOUS PHENOMENA. 23 

' Doctor, the knocking is on the outside of the door.' 
'No,' said he, 'it is on the inside.' The young lady 
was in bed, covered up, and out of reach of the door. 
We examined the panel, and found dents where it had 
been struck. Just then, as I stepped back into the room, 
a hair-brush was thrown, apparently from the door, and 
fell at my feet. It was a most inexplicable thing. 

" I omitted to say that a serious feature of the busi- 
ness was the burning of my father's barn, in broad day- 
light, when no person was in the building, or near it, so 
far as known. 

" One thing I saw, bearing on that matter, in the 
course of our investigations : One of the children slept in 
a cot-bed in my father's room, and one evening we saw a 
smoke rising from that bed. We turned up the bed- 
clothes, lifted up the mattress, and found underneath a 
newspaper ignited, which blazed up. 

" The general character of the responses was rather 
low. Many of them were simply ridiculous. For in- 
stance : When the alleged spirit seemed to be in an 
unhappy state, we asked, ' Can we do anything for 
you ? ' Answer, ' No.' ' What do you want ? What 
would you like ? ' Answer, ' A piece of pumpkin- 
pie.' Many communications came just so ridiculous. 
Throughout the whole there was nothing of any impor- 
tance — no religious truth. He said, indeed, he was in 
hell, but the idea seemed to be, he would get out here- 
after; there was a general notion of progress, and all 
would come out right some time. There was a good 
deal of truth in the Bible, but a good deal of nonsense, 
too, and he seemed, to use a common expression, to be 
specially down on St. Paul. A good deal of what came 
reminded one of Swedenborg's ideas. The idea of the 
Atonement seemed to be specially distasteful, even re- 
pulsive. Christ, they seemed to think, was much the 



24 SPIRIT CFAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

same as other men. There were, however, some that 
professed to be good spirits, who said they were there to 
keep the bad ones in order. But, on the whole, the de- 
velopment of thought was characterized by a consum- 
mate pettiness. There was no object worthy of reve- 
lation. 

" In the retrospect, my father subsequently said, his 
religious convictions were not at all affected ; he still 
held to the faith of his childhood, with the exception 
that his views of scriptural demonology were more dis- 
tinct ; and his belief strengthened that spirits, good and 
bad, do have access to us, and that they are in conflict. 

" For my own part," concluded Professor Phelps, " I 
could not account for what I saw and heard from relia- 
ble witnesses, on any other theory but that of spirits, 
though I have never gone quite so far as to admit that 
any of those concerned were good spirits. That deceit- 
ful spirits can assume to be good is plain. And the most 
probable hypothesis, until science can prove something 
else, is that such was the fact here." 



PLANCHETTE. 25 



/ 
/ 

CHAPTER III. 

PLANCHETTE. 

THE following communications have been placed at 
the author's disposal by his sister, Mrs. Stowe. 
They are inserted as specimens of the better class of com- 
munications received by means of planchette. The in- 
quiries were quite private, and prosecuted solely for the 
sake of investigation. The lady who acted as a writing 
medium was not a public operator, and has discontinued 
the exercise of her peculiar gifts. She was believed to 
be ignorant of the history of the persons professing to 
communicate through her. The spirit communicating 
purports to be that of Charlotte Bronte. 

" Do you know the Duchess of Sutherland ? " 

" Yes. I know her now. She is happy ; life even for 
her had its trials, but they are over. Be satisfied that 
she has found rest." 

" Did you know her while on earth ? " 

"No." 

" Are those who are beautiful in this world, beautiful 
there?" 

" Yes ; but the degree of spiritual beauty here makes 
the truest beauty with us." 

Some one then remarked that she must be a beautiful 
angel, because she had beauty of character as well as of 
person. 

" Are all good persons alike beautiful ? " 

" Yes ; but one's face retains its characteristics, al- 



26 SPmiTTJAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

though, as you say, it is glorified. The best are the most 
beautiful : mere physical beauty would pass for naught 
here." 

" If I could communicate with the Duchess of Suther- 
land, I would like to ask her if she remembers a conver- 
sation I had with her as to whether our departed friends 
retain their interest in us." 

" Yes ; friends here, as during the earth-life, do know 
and love each other." 

" She said in that conversation, that' she feared that if 
the blessed dead could see us in this world, it would 
grieve them, because we live so far below what we 
should." Immediately after this was said, the following 
communication came, very rapidly : 

" Mrs. Stowe, the blessed dead know that' you of the 
earth are but human ; you cannot be perfect. Speaking 
from my present knowledge, I can say that it is every- 
thing if you try and continue in well-doing. Be patient. 
I think of you ever, you and all the dear ones, and I am, 
my dear, as in the sweet days so long ago, your true and 
affectionate friend and earnest well-wisher." 

" Is the Duke here present ? " Immediately in a 
large hand was written : 

" God bless you all. S." 

Some one said, " That must be the Duke." It wrote : 
" I was very tired — heartily sick of the pomps and 
vanities of life. I wished to be better myself, and to do 
more good. But how could I ? Circumstances were all 
against one in my station living a true, manly life. The 
joys of this life were saddened by the knowledge that I 
could do so little, when I would do so much for the good 
of those dependent on me." 

" And have you found a wider sphere of usefulness ? " 
" Yes, thank God ; no more boundaries to confine my 
efforts for good." 



PLANCHETTE. 27 

" When I dreamed, the other night, of the Duchess 
of Sutherland coming to me, I wonder if there was any 
reality in it ? " 

" Yes, yes. You had a dream which was not all a 
dream. Yes, my dear, I am with you oftener than you 
think." 

" You must have met many, many friends in the other 
life ? ' ' Here we enumerated the names of all those 
who had died since we were at Dunrobin. 

" Very many ; it is so sweet to once more clasp in 
one's longing arms those so long absent — mother, father, 
husband, and children." 

" You love dear old England yet? " 

" Yes." After a pause : " We fear sorrow will come 
upon dear old England before many more years." , 

"What sorrow?" 
' " Our Queen will come to us, and you know in what 
hands the government will then be. Edward Albert is 
not all that he should be ; he has not the strength of 
character necessary for a ruler; but, poor boy ! let us be 
charitable — he is young and has a noble wife ; he may 
still be redeemed." 

Mrs. Stowe said, " Is the Queen unwell now? " 

" She is not strong. If E. A. could, or would, be 
more like his blessed father, she would abdicate in his 
favor." ' 

" How strange that he should be such a character, 
when he was so carefully educated by his father and 
mother ! " ^ 

" Certainly; but too many -children are born. He, as 
well as many others, should never have lived." 

" I do not understand that." 

" I mean that the sins of the father are visited upon 
the children, even unto the third and fourth generation ; 
and constitutional passion, and the disposition of the 



28 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

parents, are oftentimes aggravated in the children. Do 
I make it clear to you ? I'm afraid not." 

" How does God judge children, who thus inherit 
constitutional tendencies to evil ? " 

" Does He not tell you in His Word that charity is 
the greatest of all virtues ? He speaks what He does 
know, and because He has so much." 

" But Prince Albert was a perfect saint." 

" Yes ; but his grandfather ? Parents, you see, can- 
not be too careful. The Prince was not immediately 
responsible for E. A.'s sins ; but he should have looked 
into the past, and contemplated the future, before bring- 
ing his son into the world." 

At another time the following answers were given. 
Reference was had to an aunt of Mrs. Stowe, whose 
history * the medium had never known. 

" Did you know Mary Hubbard ? " 

"Died 1813." 

" Where ? " 

"Litchfield." 

"What of?" 

" Consumption." 

" What caused her disease ? " 

" Poor Mary ! her marriage was her curse." 

" Where is she now ? " 

" Safe at home, with her best-beloved sister." 

" Who was that sister ? " 

" Roxanna." Then, without any question : 

" After a life of worldly strife, 
After a life of carking care, 
After a life with terrors rife 

And ghastly sorrows which do wear 

* Outlined in Autobiography and Correspondence of Lyman 
Beecher, D. D., Vol. I. p. 136. 



PLANCHETTE. 29 

Into the shuddering soul of man, 

There cometh peace, that perfect peace, 
And lasting rest, where the wicked cease 

From troubling — and our lives are made complete." 

" Is there any time in that world ? " 

" No ; a thousand years are but as a moment." 

" Do they influence us ? " 

" You are always surrounded by spirits." 

" What kind, — good or bad ? " 

" By both." 

" Can we feel their presence ? " 

"Sometimes." 

" Can we communicate with them ? " 

" No ; God wills it otherwise ; there is an unconscious 
influence." 

" Are those who loved each other in this world to- 
gether there ? " 

" Yes ; together in the Lord." 

" Do the elder take care of the younger ? " 

" Each one is capable of taking care of himself; but 
the sweet relation of parents and children is recog- 
nized." 

"Do they know things that happen on earth? " 

" Yes ; they know when human beings are happy, but 
are spared the knowledge of sin." 

Some one said then that a planchette had assisted a 
man in his business. 

" Would it be a good plan to consult you, Planchette, 
upon business ? " 

"Not always; for we are not always allowed to tell 
the truth ; you would have implicit faith in us if we 
did ; and you should only believe in the ' True Word.' 
Humanity strives for too much light." 

" Do you enjoy this kind of communication ? " 

" Yes ; because this is the only way we can communi- 



30 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

cate with human beings ; and we like to open unto you 
as many mysteries as possible." 

" Well, then, who are you, and what is your name? " 

« A. C. Bronte." 

" When were you born ? " 

" April, 1816." 

" When did you leave this world ? " 

« March, 1855." 

" Do you retain the same traits of character in the 
other life which distinguished you here ? " 

" Not altogether. My principal characteristic was a 
constitutional absence of hope. Now I am at peace, 
inasmuch as there is no call for hope where I am." 

" Is your sister Emily happy now ? " 

" Thank God, yes." 

" Is your brother there ? " 

" Poor boy ! Let the grave cover his sins, — more her 
sins than his." 

" Is he happy now ? " 

" Alas ! alas ! Death prevents repentance." 

" Is not God's mercy the same there as here ? " 

" My knowledge of Bramwell is limited ; he may be, 
not in hell, but in Hades, mistranslated helV 

" Were you happy when you first left this world ? " 

"Yes." 

" Where did you awaken ? " 

" Not in Heaven, but in the place of departed spirits ; 
but I knew that this place was merely the presence-room 
of Heaven." 

"Do you suffer from the separation from those you 
loved on earth ? " 

" Not as you suffer. The memory of friends remains 
with us, and we wait and watch for them." 

" How do you know each other in that world ? " 

" Faces are not changed, only glorified." 



PLANCHETTE. 31 

I said to Planchette, one time when we were writing, 
"' You are the nicest, prettiest planchette I ever saw." 

It immediately answered, — 

" Thank you, ma'am." 

Mr. F., who was reading the "Nation," tried putting 
his hand on the planchette in company with Mrs. 
K : it immediately drew a rough picture of a news- 
paper, and wrote over it, " Read your ' Nation.' " 

The following conversation occurred at another time. 

" Good morning, Charlotte ! " 

" Good morning." (Written in a fine, small hand.) 

" Do you enjoy this bright sunshine ? " 

" Yes ; but it is dull and dreary by the light I feel 
and see. It is all light with us." 

" Has the great mystery of life, then, been made clear 
to you ? " 

" Yes ; all is clear as noonday now ; but my heart 
aches for those who are still in the dark." 

" Have you power to do them any good? " 

" Yes ; that is one reason why I watch over S. T. R." 

" And do you now understand why you suffered so 
much in this life ? " 

" Yes ; all things worked together for good ; but it 
was so hard — so hard there." 

" Has the character of your sister Emily developed, as 
you thought it would, under happiness ? " 

" Yes, fully." 

Here I ^topped and said to Mrs. K , " Charlotte 

wrote the work ' Shirley,' to give her ideal of her sister 
Emily's character, as she would have been under a hap- 
pier development of circumstances." I then said to 
Planchette : 

" Charlotte, you loved ' Shirley ' better than any of 
your other works, did you not ? " 



32 SPIBITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

"Yes ; it was nearer and dearer to me than all. That 
was why I was so grieved at the severity of some criti- 
cisms. They called it coarse, — God forgive them ! " 

" Charlotte, is God near to yon where you dwell ? 
And the Saviour, is it permitted you to see Him there ? " 

" Yes. He suffered and knows how to sympathize with 
such as I was. Yes, never think of Him as afar off, 
but as with you, close to you, hand to hand, and heart 
to heart, — the elder Brother, the tender, everlasting 
Friend.'? 

" Can this mode of writing be conducted so as to be 
really spiritually improving ? " 

" It could, only for the preponderance of evil influ- 
ences in the world. It is only occasionally that a person 
can command an interest from any one spirit, the watch- 
ful care necessary for their full development. I have 
charge over one, to develop her and save her." 

" Well, what do you think of this whole dispensation 
of planchettes. Will it be for good or for evil ? " 

" Neither ; it will be forgotten. Vanity Fair has too 
many things of interest to think of Planchette." 

"Is Mrs. Gaskell with you? " 

" Yes ; we are friends here, as there." 

" Why have you crossed the seas to America to inter- 
est yourself in S. T. R., when you must have known so 
many in England ? *' 

" Because our natures are similar, and I must save her 
from what I suffered. I know no England, or America, 
now." 

" Had you any commission from a superior power to 
undertake this charge ? " 

" Yes ; a commission, after I had expressed a choice." 

" But how came you to know enough of her to make 
the choice ? ' ' 

" I cannot explain so as to make myself understood, 



PLANCHETTE. 33 

as there are some things I must not tell. But you can 
understand that natures which would have been in sym- 
pathy on earth may still be so, although one is absent 
from the body." 

" Is Thackeray there ? " 

" Yes." 

"I know Thackeray's daughter. Do you, Char- 
lotte?" 

" Yes ; she is writing herself a name in the world." 

" Do you know much of her writings? " 

" Not much." 

"Do you attend to the course of literature in this 
world?" 

" So far as I am specially interested in any particular 
subject." 

" Have you been interested in the great changes that 
have taken place in America ? " 

" Yes, as a whole, but not in detail." 

" Do you maintain Thackeray's acquaintance now ? " 

" Yes ; his asperities are softened, and done away 
with. His slight savageness has disappeared. He is 
very lovable now." 

" Do you have, in that world, anything which corre- 
sponds to bodily form in this ? " 

"Yes." 

" And have you local habitations ? " 

" You must not ask." 

" What constitutes your happiness ? " 

" Each one of us has some peculiar mission. We are 
happy in that, and we have what to you is an unknown 
feeling of perfect peace." * 

" Whence comes that peace ? " 

" God gives peace and rest to his weary children." 

* But see Is. xxvi. 3. " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose 
mind is stayed on Thee." 

3 



34 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

" What must we do to prepare ourselves for peace in 
that world ? " 

" Read God's Word, and grieve not." 



The following letter comes under this class of com- 
munications. 

"Centke Harbok, N. H., Sept. 12, 1868. 

" Rev. C. E. Stowe, Hartford, Conn. 

" Rev. and dear Sir : Without claim to your consid- 
eration, and knowing you only through your writings, 
I am still bold enough to ask your advice, and to feel 
sure that you will not refuse it, although you may deem 
it strange that I should address you on such a subject. 

" In passing through Boston, last July, I bought a tin 
toy called Planchette, which seemed to be the fashion, 
and during the summer have been amusing the ladies 
with its mysterious vagaries, which in public amounted 
to nothing, its answers to questions being as often 
■wrong as right. But, trying it in private, I had commu- 
nications which astounded me, from so-called spirits, who 
give their names and various personal particulars, be- 
sides some account of their present conditions. 

" Among them are friends who were dear to me when 
living, and who profess to entertain the same feelings 
now. All this by the aid of Planchette. But now I am 
informed that that toy is not necessary, and that simply 
paper and pencil are necessary ; and on placing my hand 
in position, I find my pencil writing messages and advice 
to me which astounds and frightens me. 

" What is this power which tells me of its spiritual 
state ; which replies to my thoughts ; which advises me 
for my welfare ? I close my eyes, and my pencil replies 
to my thoughts — it tells of persons unknown to me, 
and how they wUl be connected with me. 



PLANCHETTE. 35 

" In order to test it, I asked if it would write the 
name of our Lord ; it at once wrote ' Jesus Christ.' 

" Tell me, Reverend Sir, am I possessed of a demon, 
a familiar spirit, or am I the recipient of communications 
from the souls of the blessed dead ? 

" I am not a spiritualist, nor have I heard a rap, or 
seen a table tipped. I am a member of the Presbyterian 
Church of Philadelphia." 

The following, though having no relation to Plan- 
chette, may be inserted here. 

" New York, October 5, 1874. 

" My dear Madam : As requested, I give you the 
following incident in writing. 

"In 1866, business called me to Austin, Nevada. In 
the late fall of that year I was living on Landon Hill, in 
that town, lodging in my office. A personal friend — I 
will call him Foster — had his desk in the same room with 
mine ; and the superintendent of the mine that I had 
charge of — I will call him Morgan — lodged with me. An 
expedition was arranged, and undertaken, to prospect 
for gold in the vicinity of Death Valley, California. Fos- 
ter was specially active in the matter, and I contributed 
a j)ortion of the funds. Foster finally concluded to 
accompau}^ the prospecters, and the party of five left 
Austin, prepared for a two months' trip. They had 
been gone twenty days, when, on a moonlight night at 
about eleven o'clock, as I sat writing at my desk, which 
was placedinear the south window, there came a clear, 
sonorous knock on the sash, repeated three times. Mor- 
gan and myself heard it distinctly, and Morgan at once 
stepped to the door, unlocked and opened it, expecting 
to find some friend who wished admittance. The office 
was a one-story building, and the window within easy 
reach. He was surprised to find no one, though he went 



36 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

entirely around the building in the moonlight, which was 
very bright, and there was no place in the vicmity for 
any one to conceal himself. He came in, lookmg 
anxious, and we both stood by the open fireplace a mo- 
ment, when the three knocks on the sash were repeated. 
We both hurried to renew the examination out of doors. 
No one was to be seen or found. We again returned to 
the fireplace, when Morgan suddenly exclaimed, ' For 
God's sake, look at Foster's desk ! ' Looking there, I 
saw the books and papers in the greatest agitation, 
jumping and bounding in all directions, and all in a vio- 
lent confusion, which continued some minutes. We 
were awe-struck indeed, and I remarked, involuntarily, 
'Something has happened to Foster!' and at once 
made a memorandum of the date and hour. Eleven 
days thereafter the prospecting party returned to Austin, 
deterred from further explorations by hostile Indians ; 
but Foster was not with them : he had been shot and 
killed in an attack by Indians on the very night of the 
disturbances at my office, and at about the same hour. 

" I have had during my life several somewhat similar 
experiences, and I apprehend that the progress of science 
will some day reveal the cause. I have never been able 
to connect the circumstances with what could be deemed 
a communication from the other world. In my case, 
death has invariably closed the mysterious connection 
of mind with mind. 

" Yours very respectfully, 

Wm. H. Adams. 

" Mrs. H. B. Stowb, Hartford, Conn." 



SECOND SIGHT. 37 



CHAPTER IV. 

SECOND SIGHT. 

IN the present chapter we offer an example of natu- 
ral seership, or second sight, or spirit-seeing. There 
is a wide range of very curious facts of this character, 
ancient and modern, to which it is not necessary more 
than to refer. The present case lies within the circle 
of the author's family connection and personal observa- 
tion. Prof. C. E. Stowe, D. D., is well known to the 
public, and especially to those who have enjoyed the 
privilege of being his pupils, as a man of remarkable 
sagacity and sound common sense. 

Distinguished for the accuracy of his scholarship, the 
extent and variety of his reading, the tenacity of his 
memory, and his ready command of encyclopedic in- 
formation, — thoroughly familiar with the whole litera- 
ture of spiritualism, ancient and modern, — he is the 
last person one would suspect of being the victim of a 
hallucination. Yet the fact is that he has been a seer 
all his life. And although in particular instances, as in 
those presently to be mentioned, he concedes the pos- 
sibility of a^n intra-cranial and non-spiritual origin of the 
phenomena, yet the general effect, taking his whole life 
through, has been to intensify his belief in the reality 
of spirit intercourse. With his permission, the follow- 
ing extracts from "Oldtown Folks" are here inserted, 
as literal descriptions of scenes in his early life. 

" There was one peculiarity of my childhood which I 



38 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

have hesitated with an odd sort of reluctance to speak 
of, and which j^et so powerfully influenced and deter- 
mined my life, and that of all with whom I was con- 
nected, that it must find some place here. I was dreamy 
and imaginative, with a mind full of vague yearnings. 
But beside that, through an extreme delicacy of nervous 
organization, my childish steps were surrounded by a 
species of vision or apparition, so clear and distinct that 
I often found great difficulty in discriminating between 
the forms of real life and these shifting shapes, that had 
every appearance of reality, except that they dissolved 
at the touch. All my favorite haunts had their par- 
ticular shapes and forms, which it afforded me infinite 
amusement to watch in their varying movements. 

" Particularly at night, after I had gone to bed, and 
the candle was removed from my room, the whole at- 
mosphere around my bed seemed like that which Raphael 
shadowed forth around his Madonna San Sisto, — a pal- 
pitating crowd of faces and forms changing in dim and 
gliding quietude. I have often wondered whether any 
personal experience similar to mine suggested to the 
artist this hving background to his picture. For the 
most part these phantoms were agreeable to me, and 
filled me with a dreamy delight. Sometimes distinct 
scenes or visions would rise before my mind, in which I 
seemed to look far beyond the walls of the house, and 
see things passing wherein were several actors. I re- 
member one of these, which I saw very often, repre- 
senting a venerable old white-headed man playing on a 
violin. He was always accompanied by a tall, majestic 
woman, dressed in a strange, outlandish costume, in 
which I particularly remarked a high fur cap of a pecu- 
liar form. As he played, the woman appeared to dance 
in time to the music. Another scene which frequently 
presented itself to my eyes was that of a green meadow 



SECOND SIGHT. 39 

by the side of a lake of very calm water. From a grove 
on one side of the lake would issue a miniature form of 
a woman clothed in white, with a wide golden girdle 
around her waist, and long black hair hanging down to 
her middle, which she constantly smoothed down with 
both her hands, with a gentle, rhythmical movement, as 
she approached me. At a certain point of approach she 
always turned her back, and began a rapid retreat into 
the grove, and invariably as she turned there appeared 
behind her the image of a little misshapen dwarf, who 
pattered after her with ridiculous movements, which 
always made me laugh. Night after night, during a 
certain year of my life, this pantomime never failed to 
follow the extinction of the candle, and was to me a 
never-failing source of delight. 

" One thing was peculiar about these forms, — they 
appeared to cause a vibration of the great central nerves 
of the body, as when a harp-string is struck. So I could 
feel in myself the jar of the dwarf's pattering feet, the 
soft, rhythmic movements of the little woman stroking 
down her long hair, the vibrations of the violin, and the 
steps of the dancing old woman. Nobody knew of this 
still and hidden world of pleasure which was thus nightly 
open to me. 

" My mother used often to wonder, when, hours after 
she put me to bed, she would find me lying perfectly 
quiet, with my eyes widely and calmly open. Once or 
twice I undertook to tell her what I saw, but was 
hushed up^with ' Nonsense, child ! There hasn't been 
anybody in the room. You shouldn't talk so.' 

" . . . . One peculiarity of these appearances was, that 
certain of them seemed like a sort of genii loci — shapes 
belonging to certain places. The apparition of the fairy 
woman with the golden girdle appeared only in a cer- 
tain room where I slept one year, and which had across 



40 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

one of its corners a sort of closet called a buffet. From 
this buffet tbe vision took its rise, and when my parents 
moved to another house it never appeared again. 

"A similar event in my shadow world had marked 
our coming to my grandmother's to live. The old violin- 
player and his wife had for a long time been my nightly 
entertainers ; but the first night after we were estab- 
lished in the apartments given up for our use by Aunt 
Lois, I saw them enter as they usually did, seeming to 
come right through the wall of the room. They, how- 
ever, surveyed the apartment with a sort of confused, 
discontented movement, and seemed to talk to each other 
with their backs to me ; finally I heard the old woman 
say, ' We can't stay here,' and immediately I saw them 
passing through the wall of the house. I saw after them 
as clearly as if the wall had dissolved and given my 
eyes a vision of all out-doors. They went to my grand- 
father's woodpile, and looked irresolutely round ; finally 
they mounted on the pile, and seemed to sink gradually 
through it and disappear. I never saw them afterwards. 
"But another of the companions of my solitude was 
more constant to me. This was the form of a young 
boy of about my own age, who for a year past had fre- 
quently come to me at night, and seemed to look lovingly 
upon me, and with whom I used to have a sort of social 
communion, without words, in a manner far more per- 
fect than human language. 1 thought to him, and in 
return I received silent demonstrations of sympathy and 
fellowship from him. I called him Harvey, and used, 
as I lay looking in his face, mentally to tell him many 
things about the books I read, the games I played, and 
the childish joys and griefs I had ; and in return he 
seemed to express affection and sympathy by a strange 
communication, as lovers sometimes talk to each other 
by distant glances." 



SECOND SIGHT. 41 

To the author's inquiry whether these visions were 
subject to his volition, the reply was, "Never, in the 
slightest degree." 

" Have you been able to form a decided opinion 
whether they are objective realities ? " 
" Some of them I have, and some not." 
"Have you ever seen and touched departed friends?" 
" Yes. I have seen H., and felt his hand in my own." 



42 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER V. 

VISIONS. 

IN tlie present chapter are offered a number of cases, 
of somewhat similar character with those in the prcr 
ceding chapter, some of which have been narrated to 
the author by intimate personal friends, on whose testi- 
mony he places implicit reliance. 

When the Rochester rappings first began, the writer 
was residing at the West, and one afternoon was reading, 
at a ladies' sewing-circle, an article from the " Tribune," 
giving some account of the manifestations. While read- 
ing, he noticed that a young lady, who at times resided 
temporarily in his family, was listening very intently, 
and that she turned very pale. The expression of her. 
face was so singular, that, after the reading was finished, 

he said, smiling, " Why, A , did you ever see anything 

of that sort?" or words to that effect. She repUed, in 
substance, " I don't tell everybody all I see." On re- 
turning home, on being questioned, she said she had 
often heard rustling noises in her room at night, and 
moving of the furniture, and had seen spirits both male 
iand female, and described their appearance and dress, 
especially a peculiar sort of head-dress, or covering of 
the head worn by all the female forms. The writer had 
not, at that time, seen Dr. Kcerner's work, " The Seeress 
of Prevorst," nor had anybody in that region ever heard 
of it. But when he subsequently obtained it, he found 
that Mrs. Hauffe described the head-dress of the female 
spirits exactly as A had done. 



VISIONS. 43 

This case was more convincing to the author, as unex- 
pectedly occurring in his own family, to an intimate friend 
and member of his church, in whose testimony he had 
perfect confidence, and especially as coinciding so cu- 
riously with the visions of Mrs. Hauffe, as above stated. 

In this connection the following seems appropriate. 

Mrs. Hauffe, in her last illness, said to Dr. Koerner, 
" that during her sickness she often saw visions ; all 
sorts of spectral forms passed before her eyes, but it was 
impossible to express how different these ocular illusions 
were from the real discerning of spirits ; and she only 
wished other people were in a condition to compare 
these two kinds of perception with one another, both of 
which were equally distinct from our ordinary percep- 
tion, and also from that of second-sight." 

Here, also, we may insert the following, narrated to 
the author by an intimate friend, Miss Sara E. Horner, 
of Georgetown, Massachusetts. 

" About a mile from Haverhill lived my oldest sister, 
Mrs. W., on a homestead place. A third of a mile 
toward town was another old homestead, the old Ayer 
place, where two sisters lived, one of whom married a 
man by the name of Spiller. In the same town lived a 
famous nurse by the name of Davis, who had dressed 
more people for the first and last time than any other 
person in the county ; and who was so strong of nerve 
that she might have sat for the portrait of Aunt Roxy, 
in the ' Pearl of Orr's Island.' 

" Mrs. S.> sickened unto death. Nurse Davis took 
care of her. After her death, nurse Davis went to 
my sister, Mrs. W., and said, ' I wish I knew how old 
lady Ayer looked.' My sister said, ' I don't know ; she 
died before I came here. She must have been tall and 
thin, I suppose, like Mrs. S. Why do you want to 
know?' 'Because, the morning Mrs. S. died, I saw 



44 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

sitting just the other side of the glass door that opened 
out of the room in which she died, a short, stout old 
lady in a white muslin cap with a broad, black ribbon 
around it, a white handkerchief crossed over the bosom 
and fastened behind, and I wondered if it was Mrs. S.'s 
mother. I saw this the morning Mrs. S. died, and 
thought nothing of it. I saw it again the next morning, 
and thought that if it came again I would open the 
door. I saw it again the third morning, and opened the 
door, and there was nothing there.' As my sister could 
not satisfy her curiosity, nurse D.'s part of the story 
ends here. She made no further inquiries, and soon 
after died. 

"Some months after, while my sister, Mrs. W., was 
visiting us in Boston, and had told us the story, an aunt 
of her husband. Aunt Nancy, who was contemporary with 
Mrs. S., came in, and without telling her that nurse 
Davis had seen anything, I asked her what kind of a 
looking woman Mrs. S.'s mother was. She said, ' A 
short, stout old lady.' My sister, Mrs. H., then said, 
' How did she dress ? ' She said, ' She wore a white cap 
with a broad, black ribbon around it, and a white handker- 
chief crossed over her bosom and fastened behind.' Then 
my sister, Mrs. W., to whom nurse Davis had told the 
story, asked, ' Had she any favorite seats ? ' She said, 
' Yes. Don't you know that room that opens out of the 
bedroom, with a glass door? I've seen her sit by that 
door more than a thousand times and spin, and sing — 

" Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time." ' 

"Now, whom did nurse Davis see ? For she did not 
know how Mrs. S.'s mother looked ; and Aunt Nancy 
,did not know that nurse Davis saw anything. 

" Mr. Whittier, the poet, said, when I told him this, 
that it was the best ghost-story he ever heard ; and he 
knew all the parties, which made it all the better." 



VISIONS. 45 

The same lady gave the following : 

" This one was told me by Colonel Apthorp, of Florida, 
so it only came second to me. Two gentlemen were 
travelling among the Alps : one was a lawyer, a hard- 
headed man, of almost infidel tendencies ; the other, of a 
poetical temperament, who might 'see visions and dream 
dreams.' As they were about to enter a natural tunnel, 
the lawyer suddenly stopped, and said, ' Who's that man 
there?' They were on foot. His companion said, 
' Where ? I see no one.' The lawyer answered, almost 
angrily, ' Can't see him there ? ' — pointing his finger. 
'No, I can't,' replied his companion ; ' how is he dressed?' 
The lawyer described his dress, height, and looks, sever- 
ally. His companion replied, ' That's my brother ; he 
travelled all over this region, and he died some years 
ago, — and — I won't go into the tunnel.' The lawyer 
replied, ' Well, I will,' and went in alone. After he 
had proceeded a little distance, he perceived a slight 
tremor underfoot ; he still proceeded until the tremor 
became so perceptible that he turned about and ran at 
the top of his speed toward the mouth of the tu^nnel. 
He had barely time to step one side of the entrance, 
when the tunnel was entirely filled with water, — a 
water-spout having broken back among the hills. The 
tunnel was so small, it would have been absolutely im- 
possible for two to have escaped with their lives, had 
they entered, as one did alone. Whom did the lawyer 
see ? " 

The following incident was related to the author by 
Mrs. Jones, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, a daughter of 
Noah Webster. 

" Dr. WilHam H. Goodrich, son of Professor Goodrich 
of Yale College, was pastor of the First Presbyterian 
Church in Cleveland, Ohio. Some time previous to his 
death we were conversing on such subjects, when he 



46 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

said to me : ' One fact I can verify. There was a lady 
in Cleveland, who had a son who was wild, and lived an 
irreligious, dissipated life. She had done all in her 
power to save him, but apparently in vain. She had 
left Cleveland, and was residing with another son at the 
West. One evening, this young man in Cleveland re- 
tired to rest ; he saw his mother standing by his bedside 
in her usual dress. She spoke to him, expostulating with 
him on his life, and urged him to repent and embrace 
Christ, and left him". As soon as she disaj)]3eared, he 
arose and noted down the facts, the time, date, &c. The 
next morning he went to his pastor, and related the cir- 
cumstances, and said, " I want to become a Christian ; 
show me the way." In fact, he did from that day re- 
form, and lead a Christian life. At the proper time for 
a letter to come from the West, he received word thac 
his mother had died at the hour when she appeared to 
him.'" 

A very dear friend, now residing in Italy, last summer 
told the author the following circumstance. 

"It was about the time of the last panic when my 
husband's fortune was swept away, and when, at the 
same time, he was absent from me in America, and our 
son was lying dangerously sick in Indiana. I was very 
anxious both about my son and about my husband, and 
became very much ex-hausted and depressed. 

" In my sleep, one day, I seemed to have a vision. 
The Saviour came and stood at my side ; He had my 
little Eddy in his arms. The Saviour appeared to me 
most exquisitely beautiful — more beautiful than any- 
thing I had ever imagined, or conceived possible. He 
seemed to bend over me with a sweet smile. He did 
not speak, but seemed to communicate to me without 
words a sense of his protecting care. The burden was 
lifted from my heart in a moment. I awoke and was 



VISIONS. 47 

perfectly calm and tranquil. Ever since that, if I am 
in the least disturbed or anxious, if I think of how He 
looked, it takes all my care away." 

Now the author is aware what explanation might be 
given of this by physiologists, somewhat as in the case 
of that very striking apparition seen by Lord Brougham.* 
We can imagine Dr. Clarke saying in this case : 

" Mrs. was in Italy, surrounded by beautiful 

paintings of Madonnas, and angelic forms. She is her- 
self an artist. The cells of her brain must have been 
stamped with some of those exquisite pictures. Those 
cells, thus sensitized, like a photographic plate, were laid 
away in the recesses of her brain. There they were de- 
posited, the hieroglyphic representations " of celestial 
things, " like a portrait in a garret, or a manuscript in a 
drawer, ready to be brought out whenever anything 
should occur to drag them out." 

The circumstances of her family, together perhaps 
with some unusual fatigue and exhaustion, may have 
produced " a moderate ansemia of the periphery of the 
brain, and a moderate hypersemia of the base of the 
brain, sufficient to bring within the sphere of automatic 
activity the latent cell-groups ; they appeared, subjec- 
tive vision was accomplished, and she saw the Saviour 
bending above her." 

We admit that this is a possible explanation ; but it 
is hypothetical in the extreme. We know that the 
retina, and certain nervous ganglia, and the cerebral 
lobes, exist, and that sight depends on them, and that 
^certain conditions of the inner ganglia are accompanied 
with psendopia, or conscious subjective vision. But that 
is all. That there is any " sending of messages," or 
" telegraphing," or " stamping," or " photographing," — 
that there are any " cells," and that those cells auto- 

* Visions, pp. 307-9. 



48 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

matically appear, — is purely conjectural, and the lan- 
guage even figurative. " Any explanation of the mat- 
ter," says Dr. Clarke, " must, from the nature of the 
case, be more or less hypothetical The hypothe- 
sis of Herbert Spencer is perhaps as plausible and satis- 
factory as any." " The expressions, ' cell-groups,' polar- 
izing the cells, and some other terms," says Dr. Holmes, 
in his introduction to this interesting book, " must be 
accepted rather as a convenient form of signifying an 
unknown change of condition, than as intended to be 
taken literally." 

Now the hypothesis that the cerebral organism was 
affected by the actual presence of Christ is as possible, 
may we not say as " plausible," as the other. We accept 
it as with a strong conviction that such faith is not un- 
reasonable, or unscientific. Dr. Clarke himself admits 
that some apparitions may be objective. " Probably all 
such visions (of the dying) are automatic. Yet who, 
believing in God and personal immortality, as the author 
rejoices in doing, will dare to say absolutely all? " 

He mentions one case in particular, (p. 277,) where 
the person, "after saying a few words, turned her 
head upon her pillow as if to sleep ; then unexpectedly 
turning it back, a glow, brilliant and beautiful exceed- 
ingly, came into her features, her eyes opening sparkled 
with singular vivacity ; at the same moment, with a tone 
of emphatic surprise and delight, she pronounced the 
name of the earthly being nearest and dearest to her, 
and then, dropping her head upon her pillow, as unex- 
pectedly as she had looked up, her spirit departed to 
God who gave it. The eonmction forced upon my mind, 
that something departed from her body, at that instant 
rupturing the bonds of flesh, was stronger than language 



can express^ * 



* The Italics are ours. 



VISIONS. 49 

Dr. Holmes, referring to this case, says: " Dr. Clarke 
mentioned a circumstance to me not alluded to in the 
essa}^ At the very instant of dissolution, it seemed to 
him, as he sat at the dying lady's bedside, that there 
arose ' something ' — an undefined yet perfectly appre- 
hended somewhat, to which he could give no name, but 
which was like a departing presence. I should have 
listened to this story less receptively it may be, but for 
the fact that I had heard the same experience, almost in 
the very same words, from the lips of one whose evi- 
dence is eminently to be relied upon. With the last 
breath of the parent she was watching, she had the 
consciousness that ' something ' arose, as if the ' spirit ' 
had made itself cognizable at the moment of quitting 
its mortal tenement. The coincidence in every respect 
of these two experiences has seemed to me to justify 
their mention in this place." 
4 



50 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

EEMABKABLB CONVERSIONS. 

N the present chapter reference is made to a class of 
phenomena, ancient and modern, of a higher grade, 
and, to the author's mind, of greater convincing power. 
The following is an extract from the memoirs of a dis- 
tinguished public man, giving an account of his conver- 
sion. The incidents related took place in the back room 
of a lawyer's office, whither he had retired for prayer. 
" There was no fire, and no light in the room ; never- 
theless, it appeared to me as if it were perfectly light. 
As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed as if 
I met the Lord Jesus Christ -face to face. It did not 
occur to me then, nor did it for some time afterward, that 
it was wholly a mental state. On the contrary, it seemed 
to me that I saw him as I would any other man. He 
said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner as to 
break me right down at his feet. I have always since 
regarded this as a most remarkable state of mind ; for 
it seemed to me a reality, that he stood before me, and I 
fell down at his feet and poured out my soul to him. 
I wept aloud like a child, and made such confessions as 
I could with my choked utterance. It seemed to me 
that I bathed his feet with my tears ; and yet I had no 
distinct impression that I touched him that I recollect. 

" As I turned, and was about to take my seat by the 
fire, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. 



REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS. 51 

Without any expectation of it, without ever having the 
thought in my mind that there was any such thing for 
me, without any recollection that I had ever heard the 
thing mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy 
Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to 
go through me body and soul. I could feel the impres- 
sion, like a wave of electricity, going through me and 
through me. Indeed, it seemed to come in waves, and 
waves of liquid love ; for I could not express it in any 
other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I 
can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me, like im- 
mense wings. No words can express the wonderful love 
that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with 

joy and love These waves came over me, and 

over me, and over me, one after the other, until I recol- 
lect I cried out, ' I shall die if these waves continue to 
pass over me.' I said, ' Lord, I cannot bear any more ; ' 
yet I had no fear of death." * 

Mr. Finney was one of the most honest, artless men 
that ever lived. His whole life was consecrated. He 
was a power in his day and generation. He not only 
planted the germs of religious life in thousands of indi- 
vidual hearts, but he was one of those who educated 
whole communities, and toned up public sentiment for 
great reforms, and conflicts witii wrong. The experi- 
ence of such a mind is valuable, though it may be unicLue. 
The fact which it impresses upon our belief is, that there 
was a real objective spirit-manifestation. Whether there 
was an objective vision of light, and of form, or not, — 
however the more outward and physical phenomena are 
to be explained, — there was, it is believed, then and 
there, a real manifestation of Christ. 

It is a case substantially of the same kind witli that 
mentioned by-St.^aul in the narrative of his own con- 

* Memoirs of Kev. Charles G. Finney, pp. 19-21. 



62 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

version: " Whereupon, as I went to Damascus with au- 
thority and commission from the chief priests, at mid- 
day, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above 
the brightness of the sun, shining round about me, and 
them which journeyed with me. And when we were 
all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, 
and saying, in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why per- 
secutest thou me ? It is hard for thee to kick against 
the pricks. And I said. Who art thou. Lord ? And he 
said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest."* 

In this connection also, reference may be made to the 
opening scenes of Pentecost : " And when the day of 
Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord 
in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from 
heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all 
the house where they were sitting. And there appeared 
unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat 
upon each of them. And they were all filled with the 
Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as 
the Spirit gave them utterance." f The above have al- 
ways been regarded by Christians as real spiritual mani- 
festations of great sublimity ; and it will be conceded 
that it is not the outward features of the transaction, 
the mechanical, or physiological parts, — if the expression 
may be allowed, — that are of chief importance, but the 
fact of a real spiritual agency — a power external to, and 
above, the mortal organism. In the beneficent career of 
the Wesleys, the physical phenomena in Epworth Rec- 
tory, and those accompanying their public preaching, 
when numbers fell as if shot on the field of battle, how- 
ever striking, were of inferior importance compared with 
other evidences of invisible spiritual agency. This prin- 
ciple may be applied, not only to individuals, but to na- 
tions. The Jewish nation, for example, may be regarded 

* Acts xxvi. 12-15. t Acts ii. 1-4. 



REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS. 58 

as a kind of Medium among nations — an organ of spirit- 
ual manifestations. That nation, ahA^ays recalcitrant, 
ahvaj^s rebellious, — or, as Stephen expressed it, " always 
resisting the Holy Spirit," — stoning their prophets, and 
slaying those sent untothera, — seems yet, throughout its 
whole course, grasped by a mighty power outside of and 
above itself, and moulded upon a high ideal. Had they 
been more plastic and obedient, they would have been 
more prosperous and happy. For their indocility they 
were chastised by repeated strokes, and finally dashed 
and scattered. Their history is a sublime series of 
spiritual manifestations, in which the outward and 
physical phenomena, however striking, are of secondary 
value ; and the great fact of real spiritual agency, first. 
"What advantage hath the Jew? Much everyway; 
but chiefly, that unto them were committed the oracles 
of jGrod." * The most important class of phenomena is 
that which is least conspicuous ; phenomena occurring 
in the private life of every believer, — such as answers 
to prayer, and communion with God. Reference is now 
made, not to the unusual, but to the common ; not to 
the ecstatic or mystical, but to the average, the com- 
monplace, as it were; 

There may be moments of transfiguration in every 
life, even the most prosaic. Perhaps in some communion- 
service of unusual emotion, the cup, as it came to your 
lip, did not seem to contain wine ; for an instant, a fleet- 
ing moment, it seemed to be filled with blood ; but it 
passed, as all exalted frames must, leaving only an af- 
fecting memory behind. Perhaps in some season of 
distress or exhaustion, in your slumbers, the Saviour has 
seemed to bend above you, a form of ineffable beauty, 
the form of some lost darling by his side, and to speak 
to you words of encouragement. Such moments, how- 

* Bom. iii. 1, 2. 



54 SPIKITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

ever precious, must be brief ; they are, of necessity, ex- 
ceptional. There is a simpler style of communion with 
the unseen, resulting in inward peace, tranquillity, and 
a feeling of healtli. Is not this, after all, the best and 
highest °form of spiritual manifestation, because it is 
most suited to the needs of everyday life, and to the 
capacities of average humanity? "Lord, how is it," 
said a disciple, " that thou wilt manifest thyself unto 
lis?" "If a man love me," was the reply, "he will 
keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we 
will come unto him and make our abode with him." In 
this way the humblest disciple may have a sweet cer- 
tainty of things unseen, and sing as he journeys on — 

" So shall my walk be close with God, 
Calm and serene my frame ; 
So purer light shall mark the road 
That leads me to the Lamb." 



HISTORIC METHOD. 55 



CHAPTER VII. 

HISTORIC METHOD. 

SCIENCE is but another name for history. The in- 
stinctive tendency of modern investigation is to go 
back to the origin of things. The evolution-theory is 
simply an effort to answer the question how^the universe 
came to be as it is. That is history pure and simple. 
The belief in spirits and their manifestations is ancient 
and wide-spread. It is found in Egypt at a very early 
period ; in Babylonia, and India. That belief is a fact to 
be accounted for like any other belief. Hence the evo- 
lutionist sets himself to give the history of the possible 
or probable origin of such a conception. It is an inter- 
esting endeavor in which the spiritualist may well sym- 
pathize, while appreciating the difficulty of the problem- 
If thought is material, or, in other words, if matter thinks, 
how came matter to believe in the existence of spirits 
when there are none ? 

On the other hand, spiritualists show the same ten- 
dency in attempting to account for all phenomena on 
the hypothesis of spiritual agency. Their writings are 
largely occupied with the problem how spirits came to 
be what and where they are, and what their relation to 
the material system ; in short, what is the history of the 
spirit universe ; and no one can really discuss spiritual- 
ism appreciatively without either accepting its theory 
of the history of the universe, or proposing a better 
one. 



56 SPIHITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

It may be thought that the common people are not 
competent to such an undertaking. To attempt that, 
one must possess an extensive knowledge of facts, 
and trained powers of observation, induction, and ab- 
straction. A feeling of scorn is sometimes manifested 
towards the entire spiritualistic literature, as the product 
of the uneducated classes. But the fact is, that while 
the common people may not be able to originate a theory 
of the universe, they may have common-sense enough to 
judge one when it is elaborated ; and the shrewd judg- 
ment of average humanity no philosopher or scientist 
can afford to despise. He who retires into his own 
thought-world, however extensive, deprives himself of 
valuable tests. As merchants take account of stock in 
trade every year, so minds should take account of stock 
in ideas. A man who has never abstracted himself from 
himself has much to learn. He who has never taken 
out all his ideas, (as a man takes down books from the 
shelves of his library,) and inspected them, and put them 
back, may become vain, or morbid, or spiritually hallu- 
cinated without knowing it. If a man be ever so 
learned, he ought frequently to come out of himself and 
deal with the average needs of humanity. This is emi- 
nently sanitary and conservative. 

As to the masses, they have been but too willing to 
abandon religious speculation to professional men. Any 
movement that really interests them and excites them 
to think deeply, loftily, comprehensively, however it 
may be mixed with errors, is, in this respect, beneficial. 
And without attempting a Theodicy, or undertaking to 
settle the vexed question of the origin of evil, it will 
be impossible to deal with the subject of spiritualism, 
without taking a comprehensive survey, and adopting an 
historical method, in short, propounding a possible sys- 
tem of the history of the universe. 



HISTOKIC METHOD. 57 

Analogy would seem to suggest, at the very outset, 
that the universe of mind is coextensive at least with 
that of matter. As this material globe is densely peo- 
pled, nay, crowded with diversified life, so the unseen 
may be peopled with equally numerous and various 
orders of minds. As between all the orbs of space there 
is a subtile relation, a harmony, so between all intelligent 
orders it is natural to suppose there is a relation, a kind 
of moral harmony. 

The moral universe has a history. The history of this 
world cannot remain forever isolate, disconnected with 
the history of the great whole. As all nations on earth 
are morally one, so all worlds in space are one. As the 
pebble falling by gravity attracts the globe, so this vil- 
lage-world, this ant-hill of humanity, affects the entire 
thought-universe" from centre to circumference. The 
history of nations unfolds not in total seclusion from 
other worlds. Spirits exist ; they operate, they exert 
influence. History is to be studied with a full recogni- 
tion of this fact. As well calculate the orbits of planets 
without reference to perturbations from the attraction 
of other planets, possibly unknown, as solve the prob- 
lems of earthly history without reference to the powers 
of the world unseen. We may be unable fully to pene- 
trate the plans and motives of the invisible orders, but 
that is not a valid reason for not trying to form some 
probable conjecture. 

And this, at least, we may assume as an axiom, an 
intuition : that the universe, as a whole, is to be a success. 
Its history, whenever we do know it, will prove to be 
a poem, a perfect epic, which will satisfy our highest 
cravings. Even on the principle that thought, emotion, 
and vohtion are strictly material products of cerebral 
organism, it appears that matter itself is quasi benevo- 
lent. ■ Admit that matter thinks, feels, wills ; still on 



58 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

the great scale we see a gradual improvement, a ten- 
dency towards an ideal. Matter, then, is, even on this 
extreme hypothesis, essentially good, and has done 
automatically, and is doing, and will do, all that the 
devoutest minds have ever attributed to the divine be- 
nevolence. 

If matter thinks in this world, it thinks in all worlds. 
If matter automatically evolves moral results here and 
now, it will do the same everywhere and always. The 
material system is essentially good and benign, as really 
so as if it were the work of a good and benign being. 
So much, even on materialistic premises, seems un- 
deniable. 

But if we believe in God, and an intelligent moral 
universe coextensive with the material, this intuition 
becomes even more clear in our consciousness. Social 
happiness cannot exist without confidence. Confidence 
cannot exist without truth, friendship, and self-denial. 
The unfoldings of history have in fact been conducted 
on a plan affording a vast, an exhaustive demonstration 
of these facts. They will continue to be so conducted 
until a perfect state of society is reached in this world 
and in all worlds. 



1 



ANALOGY. 69 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ANALOGY. 

THE material universe has often been spoken of as a 
kind of solidification of divine thought — a com- 
plex analogon of spiritual relations. It is sometimes 
supposed that figures of speech are certain creations of 
the mind. Some nations are literal, and do not create 
them easily ; others are more tropical, and cannot help 
creating them. But they have no necessary objective 
basis in nature. It is better, however, to say that the 
analogies are there in the material system, and that the 
difference between races is, that some see and enjoy and 
use them more readily than others. Some, perhaps, carry 
their use to excess ; others employ them too sparingly. 

It is often supposed that figures of speech are purely 
fanciful, in the sense of being governed by no law ; that 
they are mere frolic, froth, mist, moonshine. Doubtless 
the analogies of the material system have been but im- 
perfectly studied ; the action of the mind towards them 
has been often unregulated and empirical, and, as in 
every other part of nature, use has degenerated into 
abuse. But the principles of analogy which underlie all 
figurative diction are as really objective realities, capa- 
ble of scientific statement, as are the laws of gravity or 
cohesion. They are as distinct from mere subjective 
habits of casual suggestion, hints, association by direct 
resemblance, as are the laws and formulas of logic. 

Mr. Spencer, in his " Studies of Sociology," alludes 



60 SPIillTTJAL MANIFESTATIONS 

to this point. Many assume, he says, that such phrases 
as " body politic," " political organization," and others 
which liken society to a living creature, are mere phrases 
of convenience, not founded on fact ; but the truth is 
" that there is a real analogy between an individual 
organism and a social organism ; " and he asserts that, 
" without asserting this fundamental kinship there can 
be no such thing as a science of sociology." * 

This is a very important truth. A volume might be 
profitably devoted to its full elucidation. The great 
fact is, that analogy is an objective law of the material 
world, as really as gravitation. By analogy is meant a 
similarity of relations. In arithmetic, a proportion is a 
numerical analogy, — that is, an identity of ratios, — • 
2 : 4 : : 3 ; 6. Two is contained in four, as many times 
as three is contained in six. But if we say, As light to 
the eye, so is truth to the mind, we have not an iden- 
tity of ratios, but a certain intuitively felt likeness of 
relations. In every analogy there are four terms, ar- 
ranged in pairs, — the relation in one pair being more 
familiar, that in the other less, and the former employed 
to suggest or illustrate the latter. Every true analogy, 
fully stated, assumes the form, a:h::x'.y. This form- 
ula may be as useful in testing analogies as the syllo- 
gism is in testing arguments. An illustration which can- 
not be reduced to this form is not a true analogy. 

A metaphor is simply a condensed or abbreviated 
analogy, as, " I see " for " I think," or " light " for 
" truth." Now this similarity betwesn the relation of 
light to the eye and that of truth to the mind is not a 
creation of the fancy ; it is an objective law of nature. 
In all languages light is used as an emblem of truth, 
and darkness of error. It is believed that it would be 

* Studies of Sociology, pp. 331-33a 



ANALOGY. 61 

impossible to train a generation from birth to reverse 
this analogy. They might change the word-sign, and 
call the sun's radiance by the word "darkness," and 
conversely, but they would think of light itself as the 
emblem of truth. " Examine language," says Carlyle ; 
" what, if you except a few primitive elements of natu- 
ral sound, is it all but metaphor, recognized as such, or 
no longer recognized ? . . . . An unmetaphorical style 
you shall in vain seek for ; is not your very attention a 
stretching to?''' 

Let us try a moment to trace out this analogy of 
light. Of course, if light is the analogue of truth, 
warmth is the analogue of affection. The sun becomes 
the emblem of a mind imparting knowledge, the eye 
the emblem of the mind receiving (and by the same 
law, a star, a lamp, a torch, a luminary of any kind). 
But as sunlight reveals things most perfect!}^, in their 
true shape, size, color, and perspective, so the sun be- 
comes the emblem of the most perfect teacher, omni- 
scient, infallible, in whose light we see light. Here 
comes in a variety of connected analogies relating to 
the interception of light. Whatever hides the sun's rays 
resembles analogically the obscuration of truth. Mists, 
exhalations, fogs, clouds, and night are natural emblems 
of errors, delusions, doubts, and ignorance in general. 
" Thus day unto day utters speech, and night unto night 
showeth knowledge." This analogical language is real, 
objective, natural, whether expressed in verbal form or 
not. " Tho' there be no speech, nor language, yet their 
line is gone out into all the earth and their words unto 
the ends of the world." Images borrowed from the 
dawn of day, with all its beautiful phenomena, are 
transferred to the dawn of life, or infancy, to the dawn 
of national existence, to the infancy of the race ; also 
to the dawn of love, and to the earliest stages of re- 



62 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

ligious experience. The same is true of tlie imagery 
connected with noon, with evening, or with midnight. 

In examining this wonderful correlation, we find that 
it includes all the phenomena of nature, — those of light 
and shade, of color, of form, of size, weight, hardness, 
number, time, tune, motion, warmth, fragrance, taste, 
and others. The rays of heat, for example, in their 
relation to the comfort or discomfort of the body, to the 
vital processes of the vegetable kingdom, to climate, to 
the destruction or preservation of organic structures, 
are the natural emblems of love, or other strong emo- 
tions, with their contrasted effects upon the mind and 
upon social organizations. Thus arise such familiar ex- 
pressions as warm-hearted, cold-hearted, love's fire, the 
heat of anger, the coolness of estrangement, the cold- 
ness, and icy frigidity of alienation. 

Passing by easy steps to the changes of the seasons, 
-we find all the characteristic features of spring, sum- 
mer, autumn, and winter, even to the minutest shades 
and gradations, transferred to corresponding states of 
individual or social experience, even to those most re- 
condite and spiritual, most abstract and abstruse. And 
all men in all ages and nations see and feel and use 
these analogies alike, substantially, and by a law as re- 
sistless as that by which they eat bread with relish ; and 
yet there is not one of those outward material phe- 
nomena which is not directly or indirectly what it is 
because light is what it is, because there is nothing on 
this globe which the sun has not made to be what it is.v 
If we pass into the animal kingdom we find the same 
law of correspondence everywhere. Every organ of the 
body, external and internal, — the head, the eye, the 
ear, the mouth, the lips, the hand, foot, heart, blood, 
flesh, — is irresistibly representative of analogous reali- 
ties. And the health or uuhealth of each and all, their 



ANALOGY. 63 

growth or decay, their cleanness or defilement, their 
dress or adornment, or nakedness, are equally symbolic. 
So with everything the body or its members touches 
or uses, — the dress, the implement of war or of peace, 
the path, the walk, the steps, the habitation, lying 
down, rising, turning to the right or left ; looking up- 
ward, downward, or askance ; standing erect, upright ; 
strength, weakness, health, sickness, pain, pleasure, hun- 
ger, thirst, eating, drinking, laughing, frowning, sleep- 
ing, waking, living, dying, birth, burial, — everything 
pertaining to the body in all its countless contrasts and 
uses, is intuitively, necessarily, felt to correspond to 
something mental or moral, and is so used spontane- 
ously by all men in all ages, and without change or 
mistake. Scientific definition, abstract statement, meta- 
physical discriminations, may be misunderstood on these 
matters ; analogies seldom are, because the analogy ex- 
ists objectively to us, and controls us as gravity controls 
the bod}-. Pass to the animal kingdom, and the carniv- 
orous races, in their relations to the weaker species, and 
all, in their relations to the vegetable world and to man, 
are emblems by a similar necessity. The sinuous coil 
of the serpent, his envenomed fang, cannot be made the 
emblem of truth and love ; the spider in his web cannot 
be made the emblem of good neigliborhood. The cor- 
respondences are established for us ; and if the world 
should vote to change them, they could not be changed. 
Pass to the vegetable world, and the same law holds 
good. Leaf, bud, flower, fruit, seed, stalk, trunk, root, 
sap, branches, growth, decay, seed-time, harvest, are 
fixed analogues of corresponding mental or moral re- 
alities. 

Take that very " struggle for existence " everywhere 
going on around us, and try to interpret it by the law 
of analogy to illustrate benevolent co-operation. You 



64 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

cannot. It is a picture of selfish rivalry and destruc- 
tiveness. Certain species are killed out ; others sur- 
vive. The survival of the fittest means, in nature, the 
survival of the strongest, the most encroaching. It is 
like the survival, in society, of the most unscrupulous, 
the most grasping and selfish, who make the most of 
every casual advantage to root out and throttle and 
destroy all competitors. Men do not call benevolent, 
truthful, obliging, and merciful people sharks, wolves, 
foxes, serpents ; they do not call men of opposite traits 
doves and lambs. It matters not where you touch this 
material system, you find it like an infinite lexicon, 
or cyclopedia, of signs. As before remarked, the anal- 
ogies of nature, like every other good thing, have been 
abused ; yet they have shown a wonderful vitality to 
resist abuse, and defy misinterpretation. 

We may not be able to verify the history of every 
word in our language, but we can arrive at a moral 
certainty that they all originated, directly or indirectly, 
from this intuitively perceived analogy between the ma- 
terial system and the mental, or between one portion of 
the former and another portion ; and this analogy ex- 
isted anterior to its perception by our minds. The rela- 
tion of solar light and heat to the greenness and floral 
beauty of the globe existed ages before there were eyes 
to see it and perceive the analogy. Can this have been 
accidental ? Mr. Spencer well observes that no religion 
of humanity can long shut out the thought of " a power 
which was in course of ever-changing manifestations be- 
fore humanity was." We reverently ask, must not that 
power have been intelligent and self-conscious ? Can 
we conceive of such an objective law of analogy as a 
result of a blind, fortuitous combination of mechanical 
forces ? By what process of struggle for existence, and 



ANALOGY. 65 

survival of the fittest — by what mere law of selec- 
tion — is this to be accounted for ? 

The material system thus becomes to the contem- 
plative student a vast and complex system of signs, — 
the basis of human language, — so that day unto day 
uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowl- 
edge, of the great Author of all. 

The mind of man is provided with a constitutional 
faculty for the understanding of the science of analogy. 
As causality is the organ of logical reasoning, so co^i- 
parison is the faculty of analogical reasoning ; and these, 
the reflective faculties, occupy the noblest position in 
the dome of intellect ; and of these, the analogic power 
is most central, most infallible, most used and most 
abused, the latest ripened and vindicated of all the 
intellectual powers of the soul. It has been called fan- 
ciful, playful, ornamental ; it has been, like ideality, 
cavalierly sot aside as unscientific, untrustworthy, suspi- 
cious ; but it holds the golden key of millennial knowl- 
edge. 

When the analogic power is duly honored, vindicated 
from neglect and abuse, then will this material system 
be seen in its true light, and its lessons be heard by the 
deep slumbering soul of man. All nature then becomes 
our Father's whispering gallery, his school-room, — the 
walls hung with diagrams and pictures, every object a 
word of his, every change a phrase, every event a sen- 
tence. 

" Thou art, God, the life and light 

Of all this wondrous world we see ; 
Its glow by day, its smile by night, 

Are but reflections caught from Thee : 
Where'er we turn, thy glories shine. 
And all things fair and bright are thine." 

5 



6Q SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

TABLEAUX. 

THE principles discussed in the previous chapter suf- 
fice to account, in part, for the great influence of the 
Bible over the most diverse races. The Bible makes a 
more free, constant, and scientific use of the analogies of 
the material system than an}^ other book. The more those 
analogies are studied the better the Bible is understood, 
and the higher it rises in our estimation. This will 
readily be conceded, so far as relates to the diction, the 
style. But there is an application of the analogic prin- 
ciple which a class of minds fail to appreciate. When 
" types and shadows " are mentioned, some minds revolt 
with a feeling that such conceptions are visionary and 
unscientific. That analogic laws may be violated 
is plain. That they have been frequently violated is 
equally evident. But the abuse does not discredit the 
use. There is an application of the law of analogy in 
types and emblems which is legitimate and scientific. 
As every argument can be tested by the syllogistic 
formula and its soundness, or its fallacy demonstrated, 
so every type or emblem can be tested by the analogic 
formula. 

For example : it has been said that the lion is the 
emblem of courage. Apply the test. As the lion to 
other animals, so is courage to the other virtues. Does 
courage, then, eat up the other virtues ? But if we say 
that a wild beast is an emblem of a conquering world- 



TABLEAUX. 67 

empire, — Babylon, for example, or Rome, or any other, — 
then the analogy is manifest. As a wild beast to weaker 
species of animals, so is a conquering world-empire to 
weaker nations. 

It is the great fault with Swedenborg's correspond- 
ences that they do not always correspond. All spiritu- 
alists concede that he was a medium ; but his communi- 
cations, like those of all other mediums, ancient or 
modern, must be tested by logical and analogical rules. 
In him comparison, or the analogical faculty, was nat- 
urally predominant ; and when drawing his illustrations 
from nature, he obeys the objective law in a striking and 
often beautiful manner. But the action of the faculty 
is unregulated, especially as linked with excessive won- 
der and ideality, and when employed in the exposition 
of scripture. 

' Too many of the alleged correspondences cannot be 
reduced to analogic form. They even directly violate 
analogy ; as, for example, when he says, " By T3re, 
in the Word, is signified the church." * Now, Tyre was 
one of the principal polytheistic nations antagonistic 
to the divine manifestation in Israel. And the prince 
of Tyre was an embodiment of worldly power, and thus 
a vivid illustration of the great cosmocratic chief or 
prince of this world. And the analogy, correctly stated, 
is : As the prince of Tyre to Israel, so the prince of this 
world to the spiritual Israel, or the Church. 

In many cases the alleged correspondences are purely 
arbitrary ; or they depend on mere resemblance, or asso- 
ciation of ideas, — local, casual, incidental, far-fetched. 
If he had shaken out quantities of nouns from a dice- 
box, and made those happening to fall in pairs cor- 
respondences, it could not have been more haphazard, 
and non-correspondent. But he is by no means alone in 
* True Christian Religion, No. 219. 



68 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

this fault. It is the main defect with most expositors of 
sacred emblems, and one great reason why there is so 
much confusion in the use of terms, so much disputing 
between " literal" and " figurative " interpreters. 

The material system itself has not been sufficiently 
studied in its analogies. Writers have not sufficiently 
distinguished between the objective emblem, and the 
mere words descriptive of the emblem ; — have not de- 
fined their own terms, and adhered systematically to 
their own definitions, much less agreed with each other 
upon certain controlling definitions. 

It is said that good usage is the only canon in deciding 
the meaning of words. But suppose there is no good 
usage ? Suppose that such words as mythical, allegori- 
cal, metaphorical, figurative, symbolical, emblematic, 
tropical, typical, shadowy, parabolical, &c., are used as 
convertible terms, and as in some vague way opposed to 
real, literal, historical, prosaic, natural, and the like ? 
Will it not be very difficult to say what good usage is? 

No one writer can make good usage or decide it ; but 
he can at least control his own usage, make it consist- 
ent, and as far as possible harmonize it with the usage 
of other writers, provided' they have any that is uniform 
and consistent. Now, if writers would study the analo- 
gies of the material system more carefully, and keep 
more clearly in mind, and apply more rigidly, the ana- 
logic formula a : h : : x : y, it would be a step in the 
right direction toward the establishment of a recognized 
" good usage." If next they would agree to employ 
certain terms, say emblem, symbol, type, tableau, in an 
objective sense always, — as denoting an object either 
seen or conceived of as seen, ~ and to use the words 
metaphor, figure, simile, myth, fable, exclusively of the 
diction, it would be a great point gained. 

This distinction will at least be carefully made in the 



TABLEAUX. 69 

present discussion. By an emblem, a type, a symbol, a 
tableau, will be understood something seen with the 
natural eye, or in a vision, or in a dream ; or conceived 
of by the imagination as if seen. 

On the other hand, all figures of speech, of whatever 
kind, will be considered as pertaining to style exclu- 
sively. According to these principles we shall hope not 
to be misunderstood when we speak of the Eden tab- 
leau, or the Eden emblems, or of Adam as a type, or of 
the transactions in the garden as shadowing some thing. 
No one will understand us to assert that the account is 
mythical, fabulous, allegorical, figurative, for these terms 
relate to the diction, and imply, or a,re generally sup- 
posed to imply, that there was no such objective reality, 
— no garden, no actors, but pure fable — fiction. 

The very definition we have given of emblematic 
representation demands objective reality. In a tableau 
we see the objects and actions bodily before us. In 
dreams and visions we seem to see them. In a cartoon 
or painting we see an objective imitation of them. In 
a verbal description we obtain a mental conception of 
them as if we saw them. The garden, the trees, the 
man, the woman, the serpent, the Lord, the dialogue, 
the action, the costume or want of costume, the exclu- 
sion, must be historic realities in order 'to be symbolic. 
We read in Hebrews that the Levitical ritual was a 
shadow ; but there must be a ritual before there can be 
a shadow. So Eden must be, before it can be emblem- 
atic. The group of actors must be historic to be a 
tableau ; it must be vivant to be tableau vivant. A 
friend suggests that the whoje account may be simply a 
relic of primeval legend, just as the Izdubar (or Nimrod) 
legend is ; and that the advance of knowledge points 
towards this result. In that case, we should still say 
that the tableau is described as if objective. It is con- 



70 SPmiTTJAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

ceptually objective if not historically so, and the prin- 
ciple of analogic interpretation is the same in either case. 
The most recent discoveries, however, do not, at least 
in our judgment, point to this result. 

Granting the historical, objective character of the ob- 
jects described, their typical, or emblematic, character, 
readily follows. " Adam," we read, " is the type of him 
that was to come." * There has been an impression 
more or less general in every age, that such was the fact. 
And if, as has been shown, the whole material system is 
itself analogical, and designedly so made by the Cre- 
ator, why should He not be supposed to use types, and 
emblems, and tableaux ? If the family itself is neces- 
sarily symbolic ; if the relation man sustains as husband 
and father is in some respects like that sustained by 
God on a higher plane of being ; then why should it 
be thought incredible, or unscientific, that God should 
take a particular man, in some important crisis, and 
place him on a specially prepared stage, and cause him 
to act a specially^ significant part? 

And whether we suppose the crisis before us to be the 
actual first introduction of the human species on the 
globe, or the introduction of an improved variety, and 
the inauguration of a new historic era, of high moral 
importance, why should it not seem in either case a fit 
occasion for such a proceeding ? Is it not at least worth 
while to ask, if such a garden existed, if such scenes 
were acted out by such actors, what, according to an- 
alogic law, would they mean? 

One thing is evident : there is much meaning con- 
densed in very small compass. The objects themselves 
say more than the words describing the objects. The 
emblems are a Rosetta stone awaiting ChampoUion. 

* Rom. V. li. Tvnos, type, m the original. 



TABLEAUX. 71 

They are like the cuneiform tablets before the key was 
discovered. A detailed exposition cannot be attempted 
here ; it would require a volume, and may form the 
subject of a separate work hereafter. At present there 
are one or two points on which we will briefly touch. 

The description given of the garden and its occupants 
is not figurative nor metaphorical, but literal. The 
words are simple, the style artless. It is just the lan- 
guage any matter-of-fact traveller or observer would use 
if he had actually seen such a place and wished to de- 
scribe it. Let the reader reflect on this. Let him test 
the truth of our remarks. Let him read carefully Gen. 
ii. and iii., and see if he can find any metaphors, or other 
figures of speech. Tlie hidden meaning, if there be one^ 
is not in the diction, not in the style, hut in the objects 
themselves. If you could see the scene acted correctly 
on the stage, not a word being spoken except the dia- 
logue ; if you could see it in a dream, or by a vivid 
exercise of the conceptive faculties, and could forget 
every word of the narrative (except the dialogue), — . 
the analogic meaning would remain whole and entire. 
It is not, then, in the language or style at aU. 

Of the actors, we here mention only two : man (in- 
cluding woman), and the serpent. The one is inter- 
preted for us by the apostle as a type of him that was 
to come ; and the analogy is briefly thus : As the natural 
creation, with all its races, was put in subjection to 
Adam, so the moral universe, in all its orders and grades 
of being, is to be put in subjection to Christ. This is 
the leading analogy ; but there are numerous secondary 
relations which might find a parallel ; but we cannot 
consider them. The other emblem to which we refer is 
the serpent. Without entering into details, the idea 
we have formed is this : The serpent was simply an 
actor provided for that special tableau — historical ob- 



72 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

jective — and his whole value, so to speak, was in the 
analogic import of his role in the play. Briefly, it is an 
emblem of a combination of some kind, — a party, or 
kingdom in the spirit- world, hostile to mankind. This 
statement is addressed primarily not to those who doubt 
or deny the existence of any spirit-world, but to spirit- 
ualists, who fully believe in it, and who believe that 
there are great numbers of spirits that are more or less 
deceptive and selfish. The point we wish to make with 
spiritualists is, that the serpent here (and wherever else 
in Scripture the same or an equivalent form is used em- 
blematically) is the comprehensive emblem of all that is, 
to use their customary phraseology, low, deceptive, selfish, 
and in any sense prejudicial to human welfare in the 
invisible world, conceived of as organized under a great 
leading intelligence. 

For despotic and selfish organizations in the visible 
world, the customary emblem is a wild beast, as a lion, a 
leopard, a bear, or some composite wild-beast form. But 
for selfish and despotic organizations in the invisible 
world, we have the serpent, or some modification of the 
serpent-form. That the selfish and oppressive world- 
empires of the past have been as it were controlled, 
energized, inspired, from behind the scenes, one would 
suppose all spiritualists would see at a glance. Kings, 
emperors, princes, and their armies, have been pieces 
and pawns on the grand chessboard, but the game has 
been played from behind the veil. 

" Where, then," says Carlyle, " is that same cun- 
ningly devised almighty Government of theirs to be 
laid hands on ? Everywhere, yet nowhere : seen only 
in its works, this too is a thing aeriform, invisible ; or, 
if you will, mystic and miraculous. So spiritual is our 
whole daily life, all that we do springs out of mystery, 
spirit, invisible force ; only, like a cloud-image, or Ar- 



TABLEAUX. 73 

mida's Palace, air-built, does the actual body itself forth 
from the great mystic deep." 

Of this, great minds in different ages have seemed to 
have a more or less vivid impression. What is the spirit 
of the age, of which we hear so often, but an influence 
breathed in from unseen minds ? " We wrestle not 
with flesh and blood," said Paul ; and surely no man 
ever had more to do with the organized forms of the 
visible world than he. But these were not, in his view, 
even the principal part. " Our wrestling is against prin- 
cipalities, against powers, against the cosmocrats of this 
present darkness, against wicked spirits in Heaven." * 

Such, spiritualist reader, is the literal meaning of the 
apostle's words. And you admit that Paul was a 
medium. He had been caught up to the third heaven. 
He had had transcendent visions. Was he not compe- 
tent to speak on a point like this ? Now, it is this cos- 
mocracy (it is a word we shall frequently use) which 
we understand to be symbolized by the serpent. 

To this general statement one can hardly see how 
spiritualists can consistently object. And it opens the 
way to the deepest, the most interesting investigations. 
We bespeak for those investigations their most earnest 
and candid attention. But before going on, we wish to 
say a little more on the historical objective nature of the 
tableau. 

* Ilgdg xoafioxQiiroQtts rov axdwvg joiiov, ng6g zd nysvfiuiixii ttjj 
novt]Qiag h xolg inovguplolg. (Ephes. vi. 12.) 



74 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER X. 

EDEN. 

CAN we with any reasonable certainty fix the local- 
ity of the garden of Eden ? This is what a majority 
of Bible readers would desire. Can they do so in good 
faith, upon evidence usually considered satisfactory in 
historical inquiries ? Is there any lately discovered sci- 
entific impossibility in the way? Is there any great 
improbability, in the commonly received view, driving 
us, as honest men, into the misty region of myth and 
legend ? 

The Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch is held with 
undiminished confidence b}^ those who have patiently 
considered all that has been, or can be, urged against 
it. Honest Christians and honest Jews can say, if the 
authorship of Moses be not established, that of Herod- 
otus or any other ancient author is not, and cannot be. 
That Moses wove into his account of the creation docu- 
ments he found in the archives of the Egyptian priest- 
hood, is admitted ; but this only increases our confidence 
in the substantial historic credibility of the narrittive. 
Objections have been made on chronological and ethno- 
logical and geological grounds ; but those objections are 
obviated by conceding a limited deluge, and the possi- 
bility that some tribes may have been outside of its 
scope ; also by the theory that the first chapter of Gen- 
esis may describe a volcanic destruction of a limited 
portion of the earth's surface, and its reconstruction in 
six natural days, emblematic of six great periods of 



EDEN. 75 

material evolution past, and six great periods of moral 
evolution future. Not that this solution is the only one ; 
not that it is to be held as proven. It is simply a pos- 
sible one, and to some minds probable, even attractive 
by its beautiful accordance with the great principles of 
analogy already pointed out. But other solutions are 
possible, on some one of which, if not on this, the objec- 
tion may be fairly met. 

In favor of the theory alluded to, it may be stated 
that the words "without form and void " (tohu va holmi) 
sometimes imply the condition into which a populous 
district is thrown by a wasting invasion ; as when Jere- 
miah exclaims, "■ I beheld the earth, and it was without 
form and void." * Perhaps, if the first chapters of Gen- 
esis should be printed a little differently, according to 
modern methods, indicating indefinite periods of time 
by breaks in the narrative, and the use of asterisks or 
points, it might assist the reader in forming different 
associations of ideas in respect to time. And as it is 
admitted that the first chapters are composite, contain- 
ing fragments of unknown antiquity, there would be a 
certain appropriateness in such a method. 

Without attempting anything more than a mere hint 
at what might be possible, let it be supposed the open- 
ing narrative presented something of this appearance to 
the eye : — 

" In the beginning Elohim created the Heavens and 
the Earth 



And the earth became waste and depopulated, and dark- 
ness was upon the face of the abyss." 

♦ Jeremiah iv. 23, 



76 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

The mind would easily learn in earlj^ childhood, by 
the use of such a page, with simple explanations, to 
form the idea of a period of indefinite duration between 
the formation of the system and the catastrophe indi- 
cated. The rendering " became " does no violence to 
Hebrew grammar ; and the extent of the catastrophe 
may be limited to a portion of the earth, the same sub- 
stantially which was afterwards covered by the deluge. 

We should then have to conceive that those changes 
which would naturally take place in six days, in the 
subsidence of an inundation, and clearing away of vol- 
canic vapors, and recommencement of processes of vege- 
table and animal life, were successively heralded by 
some impersonation of Deity, with the distinct purpose 
of shadowing forth, analogically, grand seonic periods, 
past and to come. 

However reluctant our prosaic occidental Tninds may 
be to fall into such a train of associations, can we not 
conceive that a generation of children (and childhood 
is always Oriental) trained in this way would naturally 
work in it ? And suppose such an explanation to have 
been handed down for a thousand or two thousand 
years, — is it not obvious that the sense of a discrepancy 
between geology and the sacred narrative would not be 
what it is now ? That feeling of a strong presumption 
against the narrative which is so common could not then 
exist. May we not say, then, that there is no necessary 
conflict; and that nothing in Genesis forbids us to be- 
lieve, whenever the evidence shall fairly warrant the con- 
clusion, that the earth was peopled both by animals and 
by man before the so-called chaos in the second verse ? 

Science is. at liberty to prove, if it can, that some 
nations now existing have descended from pre-Adamic 
tribes, and to carry those tribes back to the pliocene 
epoch, or to suppose that some pre-Adamic tribes have 



EDEN. 77 

become extinct. It need not disturb our confidence in 
tlie credibility of the Mosaic history. It has not been 
shown that the descent of Jesus from Adam is an im- 
possibility. It has not been shown that it is so improb- 
able as to be morally impossible. We can still hold to 
the substantial reality of the historic line of descent 
from Adam through Shem, Abraham, and David, to 
Christ, without being justly chargeable either with igno- 
rance, dishonesty, or superstition. 

Even if the extreme theory of evolution should be 
generally accepted, it is confessedly only a theory, and 
can never prove it impossible for Nature (which is 
another name for God) to strike in at any assumed 
point in the grand succession, to institute a ne\^ line 
of development of a higher order, and with reference to 
which all preceding evolutions had been preparatory. 
Minds addicted to a wide range of spiritual and moral 
speculation would still feel the probabilities of such 
intervention to be little short of demonstrative in their 
force. 

While thus evading, or neutralizing, the shock of 
supposed scientific objections, we are influenced by a 
train of simple common-sense arguments to believe that 
the Mosaic history was a plain matter of fact. We know 
that we inherit our civilization from the Roman Em- 
pire, and that Rome derived her civilization largely 
from Greece. Grecian civilization was inherited from 
Persia, Assyria, and Egypt. The actual development 
of civilization, then, has been mainly from that region 
lying between the Mediterranean and the Caspian, and 
between the Black Sea and the Persian Gulf. And this 
is the region we suppose to be comprehensively termed 
' Eden ' in Genesis ; and in the highlands of Eden the 
Euphrates and the Hiddekel (or Tigris) do now take 
their rise within a few miles of each other ; while a few 



78 



SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



miles further north two other rivers flow, one to the Cas- 
pian, the other to the Black, which may be the Pison 
and Gihon. In fact, the name of one of them, the 
Araxes (a dart), is the same in signification with Gihon. 
Now, what more probable than to say the garden was 
in the highlands of Armenia, where these four rivers 
take their rise ? It must have been in a mountainous 
region,* for four rivers to flow out of it. This region 




ARMENIA, (OI^ EDEK) J\SSVR\/i, IB/^B/LOJMIA, 
SVf^lA, ETC., iN'TH.E P/TRIJAKJC^AL /\(GES. 

fulfils all the conditions ; and we can easily conceive 
that, if this was the general region affected by the del- 
uge, the common source of the four rivers might have 
been even more marked than it is, though striking 
enough now. 

Suppose the deluge effected by a subsidence of this 



* In which case there would be no elephants to calculate for in 
the ark. 



EDEN. 79 

region, and the retreat of the waters by its upheaval, — 
the configuration of the country, the water-sheds, and 
the course of rivers would be, with slight modifications, 
the same. We cannot say precisely where the garden 
stood, but it was not far from where we see on the map 
the head-waters of the Euphrates, Tigris, and Araxes 
springing out of the earth, very near together. The 
jNIosaic history, the map of the country, the names of 
its watercourses, the development of the great empires 
from which we mainly derive our civilization, all har- 
monize together, so that there is really nothing to pre- 
vent common readers of the Bible, Jews or Gentiles, 
from believing, without doubt or misgiving, that this 
was the scene, and that the garden, and its inhabitants, 
were realities. All recent discoveries tend to confirm' 
this view. The clay tablets discovered and translated 
b}' George Smith contain nothing to invalidate the Mo- 
saic history, but much to confirm it. 

There may be those who will object to the idea of a 
celestial creative or re-creative drama of six days, pre- 
vious to the introduction of the Adamic family ; but 
spiritualists, for whom chiefly we are writing, cannot 
consistently be of that number. They believe in spirit 
manifestations, visible appearances of celestial beings, 
glorious forms, voices, and physical effects generally. 
The idea that a celestial being, or some representative 
of the Deity, should appear on earth after a great vol- 
canic eruption, and by his word of command seem to 
regenerate the universe, one might suppose would seem 
to spiritualists as much more probable than the mod- 
ern phenomena, as such a manifestation would be more 
grand and benign. The idea that, in commencing a 
new development of history, he should produce such a 
garden by the operation of laws to us unknown, and 
therefore seemingly miraculous, will not appear more 



80 SPIBITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

incredible to spiritualists than some things they have 
either witnessed or believed on credible testimony. 

Ex-Secretary McCulloch told the writer that, when 
he resided at Washington, he witnessed at the house or 
office of Secretary Seward something of this sort : — 
A Japanese took a flower-pot, filled it with earth, put a 
seed in it, placed it on the table, and commenced fan- 
ning it. Soon the earth was broken, the plant appeared, 
and in a few minutes grew before their eyes into a bush, 
budded, blossomed ; and the performer picked off the 
blossoms and gave them to the spectators. 

Madame Blavatsky, after describing a performance of 
this kind, says : " We have witnessed the same experi- 
ment in India and Thibet, and more than once we pro- 
vided the flower-pot ourselves. We filled it with earth 
with our own hands, and planted in it a small root 
handed to us by the conjurer, and until the experiment 
was ended never once removed our eyes from the pot, 
which was placed in our own room." * The result was 
the same. 

Believing in the supremacy of spirit over matter, 
spiritualists can consistently admit any form or degree 
of its exercise demanded by any great crisis for great 
and benevolent results ; and if the history of the Adamic 
family was to contain a series of spiritual manifestations, 
as spiritualists believe it has in fact done, they can 
easily see the appropriateness of prefacing that history 
with an emblematic tableau, throwing some light both 
on the past and the future. The general statement 
would be as follows: — 

At the time when the Adamic stock was introduced, 
from which tlie principal civilized empires of antiquity 
descended, — Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome, — 
there were existing in the invisible world, under one 

* Isis Unveiled, Vol. I. p. 142. 



EDEN. 81 

prince of commanding intellect, great numbers of im- 
perfect and selfish spirits, constituting an organization 
whose influence was hostile to man. At that time the 
Eden tableau was enacted by objective materialization, 
and the account handed down to the time of Moses, and 
by him incorporated in the Book of Genesis. In this 
tableau Adam represents the human race, the serpent 
represents the invisible hostile organization ; and the 
action is both retrospective and prospective, shadowing 
forth the race's exile from heaven, the age-long conflict 
with the invisible cosmocracy, and final victory. 
6 



'^m 



82 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER XL 

THEORIES. 

WE are now approaching the point at which a gen- 
eral hypothesis may be proposed, to include the 
phenomena of spiritualism, in connection with all 
known facts. We suppose the spiritualist to grant the 
historical objective character of the garden, and its 
analogical character as a tableau. Nothing is gained by 
regarding it as merely conceptual objective, for it would 
still have to be interpreted by the same law of analogy, 
and the import would be the same. The Bible is the 
spiritualist's main dependence, — to invalidate its his- 
torical character is to break down his best witness. The 
advantage of the historical objective is, that it gives a 
real event as subject of the tableau, namely, the entrance 
on the stage of the race, or of an improved variety of 
the race. The tableau is to tell us something of their 
past, and something of their future. It joins on to 
authentic history. There is no break. It is the com- 
mencement of a family-tree, one of whose branches was 
Israel, one of whose children was Jesus. This tableau 
is to tell us, in pantomime, something appropriate to 
such a great historical epoch. 

We leave the evolutionist at liberty to prove, if he 
can, the existence of pre-Adamic races, and pre-Adamic 
civilization. Here, we claim, is the beginning of a new 
civilization, ■ — the same, substantially, which now exists. 

We leave the evolutionist at liberty to form his theory 



THEORIES. 83 

of the origin of mental phenomena. It is but a theory. 
Thought, emotion, and volition, he tells us, so far as ob- 
served, are connected with the material organization, — 
increase with its development, decrease and disappear 
with its decay and death. Parents survive in their 
children — not literally, but figuratively. Generations 
are like waves ; the form advances, but the particles 
constituting the curve do not advance. 

Our present object is not so much to controvert this 
theory, as to examine the theories offered by the spirit- 
ualists in opposition to this. 

And here we observe, that, though there is no authori- 
tative statement of the belief of spiritualists, there 
appear to be three theories on this subject more or less 
widely held. The main bod}^ at least in this country 
and England, appear to agree in the theory that the soul 
originates in, and with, the body, but is evolved from 
it at death. All spirits in the spiritual world, however 
numerous and exalted in degree, have originated thus. 
This theory, while it in some degree affiliates with the 
evolutionist theory, by conceiving of the spirit as origi- 
nating in the body, and carrying with it out of the body 
a sort of refined corporeity, yet differs from that theory 
in a very important respect, namely, the continuity of the 
self-conscious principle. It is not the mere advance of 
the wave-form on the ocean of being ; the same conscious 
self will continue to exist hereafter, and will remember. 
The same self, now conscious of joy and pain, hope and 
fear, will preserve and recognize its identity forever. 
But conceding fully the greatness of this difference, it 
still remains true, that, according to this theory, moral 
evil is, to some extent, of material origin. And this 
material world, this corporeal organization, is conceived of 
as of corrupting tendenc}^ so that the further the spirit is 
removed from it, the purer and more nearly perfect it 



84 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

becomes. The natural effect of this is to weaken the 
sense of personal demerit. Insensibly we are led to 
feel that all our sins are the results of a low stage of 
physical development ; and though they are to be re- 
gretted, yet we are no more accountable for them, no 
more blameworthy, than for the color of the eyes and hair. 
There is, however, a school of spiritualists who do 
not believe that spirits originate in this mortal body. 
" The spirit-world," says M. Allan Kardec, " is normal, 
primitive, pre-existent, all-surviving. The corporeal world 
is seconclar}^ only ; it might cease to exist, or might 
never have existed, without altering the essence of the 
spirit- world." * According to this, moral evil may be 
of spiritual origin ; and this corporeal world in which 
we now are may be, not only not depraving in its ten- 
dencies, but the reverse. In general, M. Kardec is a 
very clear thinker, and of remarkable precision of style. f 
Whether spiritualism be true or false, the Livre des 
Msprits, viewed simply as a philosophical, or theological 
treatise, is admirable, and as deserving of study as almost 
any work of the kind, ancient or modern. It is not the 
plan of the present work to construct a theodicy, or dis- 
cuss the vexed question of the origin of evil, except 
incidentally, as it may be alluded to by others. Any prin- 
ciple enunciated by such a mind as that of Allan Kardec 
is worthy of profouuder consideration than our present 
limits allow. For example, having raised the question, 
" What was the occasion of the different use of free- 
will-^ by some spirits to good, by others to evil?" he 
replies : " God created all spirits simple and ignorant, 
that is, without knowledge. He gave them eacli a mis- 

* Livre des Esprits. Introd., p. xiv. The author's real name is Hip- 
■ polyte Leon Denisard Rivail. 

t " With us," says the Revue Spirite, " that which is not clear and 
precise is not correct." 



THEORIES. 85 

sion, — to enlighten and progressively perfect them by 
the knowledge of the truth, bringing them near to Him. 
Eternal unalloyed bliss depends on this perfection. 
Spirits acquire experimental knowledge by passing 
through the ordeals which God appoints. Some accept 
these ordeals submissively, and arrive more speedily at 
the goal ; others submit with murmurs and remain, by 
their own fault, far from the promised perfection and 
felicity." * 

Abstractly considered, it must be conceded that self- 
indulgence cannot lead to individual perfection, either 
at the beginning of existence, or at any stage of being. 
Fortitude is essential to nobleness of character at all 
times ; and fortitude is patient endurance. Self-denial 
is essential to social well-being ; and this also implies 
voluntary endurance. If a harp were endowed with 
sensation, it might experience pain in being tuned to 
concert pitch. A mind, with as many faculties as there 
are strings on a harp, may perhaps necessarily experience 
some pain in being tuned to perfect moral harmony with 
itself, and with other minds ; and this may be a law, not 
of minds just beginning, but of all minds. Self-denial, 
in the sense of keeping the mental and moral strings in 
tune, may be necessary forever ; at any rate, it is neces- 
sary now. 

Now the ordeal, of which this gifted author speaks, 
may have been either natural, or artificial, that is, it may 
lie either in the normal relations of existence, in the 
spirit-world, — as illustrated by tuning the harp, — or it 
may be something extra, as it were. In the present life 
we may find self-denial enough in the natural relation- 
ships, — husband, father, neighbor, citizen, — and there is 
also an artificial self-denial by ascetic methods, — fasts, 
vigils, flagellations, and various austerities. The ques- 

* Livre des Esprits, p. 50. 



86 • SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

tion is, Does our author locate this ordeal at home, or 
abroad ? in the original normal conditions of the pre- 
existent spirit-world, or in the secondary world of incar- 
nation ? This question is less distinctly answered than 
most others in this treatise, usually so transparent. 
From some expressions one might suppose the author 
thought that spirits in their native and normal conditions 
began to diverge, and that the severer ordeals of the 
present corporeal life were then imposed, — being ren- 
dered necessary by begun courses of error and self-will. 
But there are some expressions that are difficult to recon- 
cile with this view of our author's meaning. 

" Free-will develops in proportion as the spirit acquires 
self-consciousness. There would be no liberty if choice 
were determined (^sollicitS^ by a cause independent 
of the will of the spirit. The cause is not subjective, 
but objective, in the influences to which it yields in 
virtue of its freedom. It is the grand reality, shadowed 
forth in the fall of man, and original sin. Some have 
yielded to temptation, some have resisted." Thus our 
author takes his stand with us at the gates of Eden ; 
and interrogates those eloquent emblems. " Whence 
come the influences which operate on the spirit ? " — that 
is, the tempting influences of this life. The answer 
which those emblems seem to give him is, " Imperfect 
spirits, who seek to take possession of him and are happy 
in making him yield. This it is which has been de- 
picted under the figure of Satan." From this, we should 
suppose that the author would regard the serpent as an 
emblem of the combination of such spirits, acting in 
their original normal world ; and that the processes of 
deterioration, or divergence, had commenced in that 
world. Thus the question is immediately asked : " Is 
this influence (of temptation) exerted upon the 
spirit at the commencement of its existence only ? " 



THEOKIES. 87 

And the reply is : "It follows it in its spirit-life, until 
the spirit acquires such self-mastery that evil spirits re- 
nounce the attempt at obsession." 

This implies clearly, that in the author's mind, or in 
the view of the spirits communicating, — for this work 
is professedly from spirits of the highest grade, — the 
process of divergence originated in the spirit-world. 
Yet the further development of the theory casts some 
doubt upon this important point. The theory is, that 
the process of conducting all spirits to perfection is by 
a series of successive incarnations, in this or other globes 
of the material universe ; and in developing this theory, 
expressions constantly occur implying that matter is 
corrupting. The lower grades of spirits are " charac- 
terized by the predominance of matter over spirit." The 
highest grade, those which have attained perfection, 
" have ascended over all the steps of the scale, and have 
cleansed away all the impurities of matter." 

Thus the corporeal world seems to be regarded in 
general, and from one point of view, as remedial ; and 
yet from another point of view as defiling. In this re- 
spect the theory seems not to have been thoroughly 
worked out and made self-consistent. If this one feature, 
the defiling tendency of matter, could be eliminated, the 
theory would be improved, not only in consistency, but 
in intrinsic probability. For, that God should make this 
material world as a sin-removing or purifying instru- 
mentality seems more probable, from the author's own 
standpoint, than that he should make it as a sin-produc- 
ing or defiling instrumentality. 

The theory of reincarnation, in itself, contains nothing 
impossible, or improbable, carefully limited as it is by 
the author to the ascending series, and in the human 
line. It is thus distinguished from the ordinary theory 
of transmigration. It is a question, however, whether, 



88 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

as presented in the work before us, it is not carried to 
such an extreme as to convey the impression of extrav- 
agance. 

To complete the view of the Kardecian theory we 
may observe, that it distinctly repudiates pantheism ; and 
bases itself, so far as morals are concerned, on the teach- 
ings of Christ. Psychologically, it is not unbiblical. 
Spirits are not conceived of as metaphysically imma- 
terial. The spirit proper (pneuma) has a certain 
ethereal corporeity (psyche) — the spiritual body. 
Man is thus a trinity — body, soul, and spirit. At con- 
ception the spirit becomes connected by means of the 
psyche with the body (soma) — dying out, as it were, 
of the spiritual world. The number of spirits is illimit- 
able ; they are conceived of as in three general grades, 
with ten subdivisions founded on differences of knowl- 
edge and purity. The theory admits of no essentially 
evil or malignant spirits ; but there is a very large num- 
ber of imperfect spirits, ranging from those neither very 
good nor very evil, to those who are classed as impure, 
who suffer from envy, jealousy, and other evil passions, 
and who believe that their sufferings will be without 
end. It is the will of God that they should entertain 
this belief as a part of their punishment. All, however, 
are destined, sooner or later, to ascend through succes- 
sive incarnations to final perfection. 

There is another theory held by a class of spiritualists 
represented by the Theosophic Society of New York, 
With spiritualists in general they agree in the reality of 
the spiritual world and the modern spiritual manifesta- 
tions. With the Kardecian school they agree in the 
pre-existence of the soul ; the trinity of body, soul, and 
spirit ; and in a possible reincarnation in some in- 
stances. 

" We are, then," says Colonel Olcott, " generally in 



THEORIES. 89 

perfect accord with spiritualists. Where we differ is, in 
the first place, in thinking that it is not good to encourage 
mediumship under all circumstances, because, especially 
as actually practised in America, it exposes the sensitives 
to enormous physical, psychological, and moral perils, 
and too often produces in the investigator himself a 
blind credulity, which is quickly transformed into bigo- 
try or dogmatism Finally, to comprehend the 

most serious ground of our disagreement with the spirit- 
ualists, one should know how we contemplate man and 
nature. For us, man is a trinity, not a duality. Inside 
the natural body, and pervading it, is the astral body or 
soul (psyche), and the two are overshadowed, illumined, 
spiritualized, by a third element — the divine, immortal 

spirit (pneuma), — the JSfous of the Greeks We 

believe that the fleshly man declines, dies, and enters the 
•course of evolution to be elaborated anew and without 
end ; that the astral man, disincarnate, freed from its 
physical captivity, is followed by the consequences of its 
earthly deeds, thoughts, and desires. This astral man 
purges itself from the last traces of its terrestrial gross- 
ness, and finally, after an incalculable lapse of time, is 
indissolubly united to its divine Spirit to live forever. 
.... Or, having been completely degraded upon earth, 
abases itself lower and lower in matter, and ends by 
annihilation." 

Such a soul, after death, and prior to annihilation, 
" wanders about among, and enters into human bodies, 
obsessing the sensitives, gratifying through the organs of 
another his depraved appetites, till, consumed by his own 
proper fire, he crowns his frightful career by the dissolu- 
tion of his elements." These are the Elementaries in 
the nomenclature of the Theosophic Society. " The 
Elementah are another thing. What are commonly 
termed the forces of nature, the Oriental philosophy 



90 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

teaches, are beings to whom, conformably to our masters, 
we give the name elemental spirits." 

The human spirit, however, by a certain course of 
initiation, generally of an ascetic nature, is able to assert 
its original, native, pre -existent superiority over all such 

elemental spirits " The perfectly initiated, or 

Adept, possesses absolute power over these natural forces, 
which are vague, incorporeal, unintelligent. Of them- 
selves, these forces have no desire either to help or harm 

us They are the forces of the winds, fire, water, 

subject to immutable laws ; and man, in using them, 
acts only in conformity with those laws." 

There are two forms of this supremacy over elemental 
spirits, according as the Adept is himself good or evil ; 
the one being what is termed by Orientals " white magic," 
the other, "black magic." Magical science in general 
is sometimes spoken of under the general name of Oc- 
cultism. 

Another influential class of spiritualists are the fol- 
lowers of the Swedish seer, styling themselves the New 
Church. In one respect these agree with the modern 
movement, or the modern movement with them, namely, 
as to the earthly origin of all spirits. " There is not any 
angel that has not been a man." * " The seed of man 
is conceived inwardly in the understanding, and is 
formed in the will, and thence is transferred into the , 
testicle, where it clothes itself with a natural covering, 
and thus it is conveyed into the womb and comes into 
the world." f " The natural man, viewed in himself as 
to his nature, differs not at all from the nature of 
beasts." J " What man is from birth, and what he 
would be if he were not regenerated, may be seen from 
savage beasts of every kind; that he would be a tiger, a 

* True Christian Religion, No. 121. f Id. No. 584. 

X Id. No. 574. 



THEOEIES. 91 

panther, a leopard, a wild-boar, a scorpion, a tarantula, 
a viper, a crocodile." * " From nativity he is a hell in 
miniature." f 

Man is indeed spoKen of as, in a certain sense, " a 
native of both worlds ; " but he has never had any real 
conscious celestial existence prior to this life. The 
general aspect, then, of the material system is, that it is 
something to be redeemed from, — not in itself of 
remedial design and influence. In fact, the tendencies 
of the system were such as to threaten the destruction 
of Heaven itself. " For before the coming of the Lord, 
hell had grown up so as to infest the angels of heaven, 
.... nor could even the angels of heaven have long 
subsisted in their integrity." J " The hells had grown 
up to such a height that they filled all the world of 
spirits, which is in the middle between heaven and hell ; 
and thus not only confused the last and lowest, but also 
assaulted the middle heaven, which they assaulted in a 
thousand ways, and which would have gone to destruc- 
tion unless the Lord had protected it." § " Redemption 
was a battle with the hells, a subjugation of them, and 
afterwards an establishment of order in the heavens." |! 

The precise relations of this respectable body of spiritu- 
alists to the modern movement we have not the means 
of accurately determining. That Swedenborg was a 
gifted seer, all spiritualists admit; but, according to 
their cardinal principle, all his revelations must be tested 
by reason and the moral sense. Undoubtedly his re- 
markable system has had a potent influence, preparatory 
to, and formative of the more modern movement, to 
which it is yet, in some important respects, antagonistic. 
While teaching the endlessness of future conscious retri- 
bution, the nature and degree of penal suffering is some- 

* True Christian Religion, No. 574. t Id. No. 612. 

X Id. No. 579. § Id. No. 121. |1 Id. No. 126. 



92 SPIKITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

what modified by the conceptiou that evil spirits do not 
realize their condition, but are fixed in the belief of 
falsehood, and find a kind of enjoyment in evil. The 
conception of organization of both good and evil spirits 
in societies, and grades, is prominent ; also, of a great con- 
flict between Christ, and all invisible evil organizations, 
their subjugation, and the establishment of final order. 
Spiritualists will admit the importance of these general 
principles, whether they accept in detail the manner in 
which they are elaborated or not. In respect to the 
tendency of this material system to produce moral evil, 
this school does not differ materially from that of later 
spiritualists. Directly or indirectly, it is from the senses, 
and this material environment, that all sin and all moral 
evil arises. Eliminate this element, and the system 
would be greatly modified. It has recently been stated 
that Swedenborg held to the doctrine of pre-existence. 
We have not, however, been able to find the evidence 
on which such a statement can be defended. From this 
brief survey of the field, it appears that two schools of 
spiritualists, of distinguished ability, though inferior in 
point of numbers, hold to the pre-existence of the soul, 
and the existence of sinful habits anterior to incarna- 
tion ; and they assert that the reason why the spirits 
communicating through mediums of the more numerous 
schools do not teach this doctrine, is because they are 
low in the scale, and comparatively ignorant, and in- 
capable of comprehensive thought. We also see that 
three different theories are entertained respecting future 
retribution. There is the theory of universal restora- 
tion, the theory of conditional immortality (or the an- 
nihilation of the wicked), and the theory of endless 
conscious suffering. 

All spiritualists agree in speaking of the material 
system as in some way, either directly or indirectly, de- 



THEORIES. 93 

filing ; and of the process of purification, as a cleansing 
away the stains of this material system ; or a subjuga- 
tion of the external material organism by influences 
from above. It is at this point that we wish to submit 
for their consideration a theory more satisfactory to our 
own mind, and one which seems to ns more consistent 
with the cardinal principles of spiritualism. If sj^iritu- 
alists will pause awhile and reflect, they will see that, on 
their own principles, there is no good ground for regard- 
ing this material world as in fact defiling, however it 
may be sometimes figuratively so spoken of. We must 
distinguish between figure and fact. Nature is, in fact, 
morally salubrious and restorative. We cannot under- 
stand sin in a mechanical sense, — if the expression may 
be allowed. Moral evil is in its own nature internal, 
not external. It is always the abuse of something 
good, either by excess or defect. It is excessive self- 
indulgence, or self-pleasing, or selfishness. Pride is an 
excess of a good quality ; so is ambition ; so is avarice, 
and every other lust. Duplicity, even, is an abuse of 
powers essentially innocent. " Be ye wise as serpents, 
harmless as doves," said Jesus. 

A self-idolizing spirit can be shown through bodily 
organs ; but it can also be conceived of as shown with- 
out them. Spirits may love power over other spirits ; 
they may use that power either selfishly or benevo- 
lently, either truthfully or deceptively. It is in this 
excessive self-pleasing spirit that sin consists. Thus 
Jesus teaches that " nothing from without entering into 
a man defileth him ; but from within, out of the 
heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts, 
and all forms of sin, and these defile the man." And 
this seems to be a point on which all spiritualists can 
consistently with their own avowed principles accept 
the teachings of Jesus. It is essentially the foundation 



1 



94 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

of morals and ethics ; and there is nothing in his teach- 
ing which is repugnant to our highest reason and con- 
science. 

It is not, then, this most divinely beautiful material 
world which is the cause of moral defilement. It is not 
one immense, complex, almost omnipotent, sin-produc- 
ing contrivance. It is just the reverse. It is a sin- 
removing contrivance. Its influences, if not perverted 
and abused, are eminently salutary. The nearer we get 
to nature, the nearer we get to God. 

Man is a celestial race, exiled from his native skies, 
we may not be able to tell precisely how, or when, 
though we shall know by-and-by. He is abroaxl on his 
pilgrimage, — not as a felon incarcerate ; not expiating 
guilt ; but for remedial purposes. And that not merely 
for individual restoration, but with reference to the 
political regeneration of the moral universe. 

That regeneration is rendered necessary on the same, 
general principles that, on a smaller scale, reorganization 
is rendered necessary in earthly communities, namely, 
on the principles of truth, humility, and self-denial, as 
opposed to fraud, pride, and self-indulgence. 

The human race — so say the emblems of Eden — is 
destined to preside over all races and orders of the 
finally reconstructed universe ; but against this, all 
selfish and jealous principalities in the spirit-world are 
leagued together under one great intellect of command- 
ing eminence ; while to carry it into effect all holy and 
unselfish spirits are combined, and divinely led. The 
reason why the scene of conflict should be laid in this 
world is conceived to be, that the conditions for achiev- 
ing results so comprehensive did not exist in those 
spheres of being, where society was older, more settled 
in its courses, and where antagonisms of spirit and prin- 
ciple may have been more intense ; corrupt influences 



THEORIES. 95 

more deeply rooted ; and the individual less easily de- 
fended against them, and braced up to form habits of 
truth, meekness, and self-denial. 

Most spiritualists admit that spirits in the lowest 
spheres or grades are practically helpless ; that they can 
only be reformed by being transferred to other spheres ; 
and that spirits from higher spheres have to stoop to 
their level to do it, and find it an extremely difficult 
task. The general principle, then, of a need of some 
change of circumstances is conceded. Incarnation is that 
change. 

As a father, residing in some gay metropolis, seeing 
his son forming dissipated habits under the influence of 
convivial associates, might purchase an estate South, or 
West, or beyond the seas, and induce his son to accom- 
pany him, in order to break up old associations and form 
new ones, in healthy contact with Nature, — so we con- 
ceive it to have been, in some measure, with man. Of 
course this must be a very brief and imperfect statement 
of an hypothesis, in the nature of the case so extensive, 
and difficult to grasp in all its bearings. To make it 
more intelligible, especially in relation to the conserva- 
tive and salutary aspects of the material system, we will 
specify more in detail some of the hypothetical reasons 
for incarnation. 



96 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE HYPOTHESIS. 

HAVING exhibited the several theories held among 
spiritualists, and briefly suggested an amendment, 
we now proceed to offer some conjectural grounds or 
reasons for such supposed incarnation. 

1. To render more definite mind's relationship to 
place. That a change of the sense or feeling of space 
is possible may be illustrated by the supposition that 
our eyes were microscopes. We should evidently be, 
so far as our sense was concerned, living in quite a dif- 
ferent world from the present. So if our eyes were 
telescopes. Or, again, suppose our eyes so made that 
at will we could use them microscopically, or telescopi- 
cally, or as we now do, — our space-world would be 
very much enlarged ; but space would be none the less 
a necessary form of thought. All created spirits prob- 
ably possess some body, more or less tenuous (psyche), 
and consequently some relationship to place ; and they 
may possess powers of locomotion very swift, like the 
electric current, or rays of light. On the supposition 
that spirits have grown proud, this freedom may need 
abridgment. The evasive spirit is more restricted in 
space than previously. This would tend to enforce pa- 
tience and humility. 

2. To render more definite the feeling of time. Time 
and space are objective realities, or, perhaps we should 
say, necessary forms of thought ; but the sense or feel- 



THE HYPOTHESIS. 97 

ing of them may vaiy. We cannot admit the possi- 
bility of a mind, at least of any considerable degree of 
intelligence, without the sense of succession and exten- 
sion. To assert that a rational mind can exist without 
space and time as necessary forms of thought, is to as- 
sert that a mind can think of a triangle without three 
sides ; for the conception of a triangle (or any other 
geometrical • figure) involves both space and time — 
space included by the sides, time in counting the sides. 
But minds may differ widely in the sense of time ; and 
in order to a social state some common measure of time 
is needed. In the spirit-world, it is possible that the 
sense of duration is less marked, or less slow, or less 
regulated to a common standard, than here : though 
still it cannot be proved that spirits are not cognizant 
of the planetary motions, or provided with other modes 
'of marking time. It may, however, be necessary, for 
remedial purposes perhaps, to magnify the sense of 
time for a while, — to render small portions of it more 
sensible, — so that what might seem to spirits a short 
time shall seem a long one, and so that spirits of un- 
equal rates of succession of ideas by reason of unequal 
ardors of temper may be reduced nearly to a common 
rate or sense of succession. 

In connection with this may be the making a record 
or history of individual and social developments, by 
means of a common graded rate, effected by " the stu- 
pendous horology " of the heavenly bodies. 

3. Another design may be to increase or diminish 
sensation, the pleasurable or painful impressions of the 
material universe. We may conceive all spirits em- 
bodied, and more or less susceptible to extei'oal im- 
pressions. Those impressions, under certain conditions 
of moral character, may be, some of them too intense, or 
some too dull. It may be important to increase some, 
7 - ' 



98 _ SPIKITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

and diminish others. " The organs of sense may be re- 
garded as limitations of the general percipient faculty 
of the mind. The animal organization, with its medul- 
lary mass and nervous expansion, may be regarded, not 
merely as a means of sensation, but as a means of abate- 
ment, or as a sheath defending the percipient faculty of 
the mind from the too forcible impressions of the ex- 
ternal world." " Perception is a circumscribed faculty." 
The body is "an envelope, or rough coating."* 

The effect of this may be salutary as a check to the 
audacity of the untrammelled spirit. Ambition and self- 
esteem receive here an effective rebuff ; and the gen- 
eral proportionment of minds together by constitution 
and temperament may operate to bring diverse spirits 
nearer to a common average of sensation, and hold them 
to certain laws, thus chastening their pride and evasive 
subtlety. 

4. A fourth design may be to diminish or increase 
their power, over matter. Some spirits may have too 
much, some too little. By incarnation they may be 
brought to an average. Some spirits may be proud on 
account of their easy control of material phenomena, 
and may need to be taught patience and submission, 
and vice versa. Such a decrease of power may be plau- 

' sibly inferred " on the ground that the muscular force is 
now felt to be a power restrained, — a faculty equal to 
much more than is as yet permitted to it ; and perhaps 
with not a few individuals the conscious mechanical 
energy is strictly analogous to that of a strong man 
handcuffed and fettered, who meditates what he will do 
when set at large. Is there not a latent, or half latent, 
instinct in the mind which speaks of a foregone liberty 
of ranging at will through space ? "f 

5. A fifth design may be to discipline the imagina- 
* Physical Theory of Another Life. Isaac Taylor. t !^^- 



THE HYPOTHESIS. 99 

tion. Perhaps the imagination ma}^ be far more ex- 
uberant, more creative, more intense, in the spirit-world 
than here ; and if spirits have become proud and self- 
pleasing, the wings may need clipping, and through the 
analogic forms of this wondrous world the imagination 
may be schooled to sobriety without being disabled or 
degraded. And if in any classes of spirits it had hap- 
pened that imagination had become morbid in any way, 
so that the iut«nser expressions of divine beauty and 
moral perfection might be too painful (as sunlight to 
an inflamed eye), it might be desirable to protect or 
shield the spirit organ, so that while the heavens de- 
clared his glory, the mental eye might not be blinded 
by excess of light. 

6. Another supposable reason for incarnation might 
be the clearer defining of individuality. The very ex- 
istence of society seems to demand some power of pri- 
vacy on the part of the individual, especially if the idea 
of contrast of character in the spirit realm be allowed ; 
but it is conceivable that originally there was much less 
privacy than we are accustomed to. Spirits may have 
been more transparent to each other when love was 
young and confidence unimpaired. But if pride ,and 
ambition and self-will be supposed to have supervened, 
then the mastery of spirit over spirit might be too great, 
and if processes of reformation were to be instituted, 
it might be expedient to increase the privacy of the 
individual. " The body is not the bower or tent of 
the soul ; it is its castle, from which all other minds 
may be excluded." * If we reflect, in this connection, 
upon the present construction of the material universe, 
we shall not wonder that profound thinkers have de- 
clared it " plainly marked with the intention to prohibit 
intercourse." f 

* Physical Theory of Another Life, p. 40. f Id. p. 178. 



100 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

If diphtlieria or some malignant disorder shows itself 
in a large family of children, how quickly is that fam- 
ily^ scattered ! — one here, another there, far and wide 
apart from the centre of contagion. So it may be God's 
family has been scattered from the contagion of pride. 

7. A seventh reason may be to curb somewhat and dis- 
cipline the plastic power. It is conceivable that spirits 
may have a power of assuming forms at will, by a quasi 
creative power over the elements, and that indulgence 
in this power in a self-pleasing spirit may have degener- 
ated into a kind of masquerading habit, illrusive, protean, 
deceitful, and so immoral. Now in the mysteries of in- 
carnation mind may unconsciously build its own cell, 
like the chrysalis, and during life carry on automatically 
the vital processes. The child unborn may affect the 
mother more, sometimes, than the mother the child. The 
great law of heredity may be more complex than has 
been frequently imagined — involving something from 
the father, something from the mother, but something 
from the idiosyncrasy of the incoming spirit elaborating 
an organism suited to its own peculiarities. Thus the 
body may indeed be the soul's own house, being elab- 
orated by it ; and the vital principle, so much specu- 
lated upon, may be only the mind's creative power re- 
duced within prescribed boundaries. Thus, as a man's 
house and grounds are in some degree a revelation of 
his character, so the body may be an expression of the 
spirit* architect that builds, and repairs, and vitalizes, 
and clothes, and feeds it. The tricksy, masquerading 
spirit is thus taught that, if this world be a stage, life is 
not a mere farce or light comedy, but deep tragedy, de- 
manding its profoundest energies. 

8. Another snpposable reason may be the temporary 
suspension of discouraging memories. It is easy to con- 
ceive that spirits may have entered on unfortunate 



THE HYPOTHESIS. 101 

courses, and done deeds and formed habits they would 
wish to forget. In order to reformation, it may be 
necessary to suspend memory for a time and begin again. 
And there is much in the phenomena of memory in the 
present life to suggest such a conception. Memory in 
tlys life is " a partial exercise of a larger power, which, 
in adapting itself to the occasions of active life, forfeits 

or holds in abeyance its plenary prerogatives The 

power which in its original capacity might fill a broad 
field does in fact only beat a narrow path, and gropes 
its way backward over the ground it has traversed.'' 
" Perhaps, if our memories of the past were not in some 
such manner abated and borne down, or obscured and 
obliterated, there would be in most minds certain vivid 
recollections which would continue to usurp the entire 
consciousness and so exclude the present." Hereafter 
the mind may " repossess itself of its entire past exist- 
ence ; however such full consciousness of the past might 
seem to exceed in kind as well as in amount our present 
partial and fallacious recollections, it would nevertheless 
be only the same power of the mind set free from physi- 
cal obstructions and infirmities." 

" Moreover, it is reasonable to believe that whereas, 
in the present state, the heterogeneous elements of mind 
and matter as consorted within the animal organization 
are held together as by force, and so as to occasion a 
vague feeling coming over us at times as if we were 
dreaming, or as if our very life were an enigma, .... 
on the contrary, when (hereafter) the corporeal nature 
has become nothing but the vehicle and instrument of 
the mind, .... that then there shall attend us an in- 
comparably more vivid sense of reality, then we shall 
perceive things with a sharp intensity, and shall have a 
bright, vivid consciousness of life, such as shall make us 
think of the gone-by period of animal life as if indeed it 



102 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

had been a dream. It is so that a man may have groped 
his way, hour after hour, across a marshy level, veiled 
in fogs, till he comes to the foot of a steep, where after 
some arduous steps he gains a height, and not only over- 
looks the mists of the swamp, but beholds a wide illu- 
mined landscape, and the clear sky, and the sun ! " * 
That wide illumined landscape may be our celestial 
fatherland ; that sun is God. 

9. Another supposable reason for incarnation would 
be to interrupt certain trains of association of ideas 
which might have become habitual and irresistible. If 
the condition of societ}^ in unseen realms be supposed to 
be mixed, if reformation be an object, it is conceivable 
that habits must be interrupted — that minds must be 
for a time brought back as near as possible to their 
starting-point, so as to take a new departure. 

Now, there is a contrivance in the material system to 
set up and keep going trains of association, very vari- 
ous, ever fresh, and all of them (except as the system 
is abused) of a healthful or sanitary kind. The asso- 
ciations of infancy, of home, of maternal influence, of 
brothers and sisters and playmates, how sweet and 
sacred they are ! The spirit must do great violence to 
nature to go downward to crime and ruin. The fol- 
lowing beautiful passage from a well-known writer is in 
point : — 

" But what was most valuable in my home education 
was unconscious infiltration from a good home atmos- 
phere. This is an influence of incalculable importance 
a thousand times outweighing all the schools. It is that 
for which God established the family — the one single 
possible real and efficient means o£ well bringing up the 
young ; and whatever shades of repression, misunder- 
standing, ungeniality, restraint, may have sometimes 
* Physical Theory of Another Life, pp. 66-68, 152. 



THE HYPOTHESIS. lO-i 

troubled me, still I constantly feel and fully know' that 
that pure, calm, quiet, bright, loving, intelligent, refined 
atmosphere of my home silently and unconsciously pen- 
etrated and vivified all my being." * 

10. Another supposable design is to reveal to the 
spirit its own weakness. It may be that spirits are un- 
conscious of fatigue. Their corporeity, whatever it is, 
may be such as to need no sleep, no rest, no relaxation, 
no nutriment by food, and thus it is possible the sense 
of weakness and dependence may need to be increased. 
Under such a state of things it would be more difficult 
to effect a change of temper and spirit if pride had once 
crept in. Pride is very subtle, and self-knowledge very 
difficult. " Under such an economy the good might be 
better than they are here, and the bad might be v/orse. 
We may therefore readily surmise the reason of the 
actual constitution of human nature in this behalf as 
fitting mankind for a state wherein good and evil are in 
conflict, and the object is to give victory to the former." f 
The conditions of reformation, as consisting in meek- 
ness, gentleness, dependence, are more farorable in such 
a world as this than in any other. 

11. Another supposable reason is to check pride of 
intellect, and enforce docility. It may be that in the 
spirit-world minds can do two things at once — or three, 
or four — without exhaustion. The mind possesses this 
ability here to some extent, but is prnpoi-tionately 
fatigued by its exercise. In the other life, all the fac- 
ulties may have marched abreast, in skirmish line, in- 
stead of, as here, going Indian-file. 

The mind may have had exalted intuitional vigor, or 
insight into truth, without the need of study or painful 
process of deduction or induction. The mind may not 

* Childhood : A Study. F. B. Perkins, 
t Physical Theory, p. 78. 



104 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

have prized knowledge so easily "won. The appetite 
may have grown dainty. Self-conceit and elation may 
have wrought unhealth. - The very truthfulness of the 
mind itself might be endangered through the quasi in- 
sanity of self-worship. Therefore confinement under a 
s3'stem where usually one thing must be learned at a 
time, and where at every step the pupil must believe 
what it is taught, might be necessary. Thus the spirit 
learns to value knowledge by working hard for it, and to 
be humble and teachable in view of its own limitations. 
Thus while perforce plodding our weary way, by in- 
duction and by logic, towards the heights, we yet feel 
the slumbering intuitional pDwer stir within us ; we beat 
against the bars of our cage like birds untamed ; we have 
claii-voyant glimpses ; we grow at times prophetic, enthu- 
siastic, inspired ; we dream ; we rave. Then, " taking 
our happiest moments as a gauge of the original power 
of the mind, we feel that we need to be only a little 
more disengaged from organic imperfections," in order 
to seize the most remote ~ abstract truths by intuition. 
If the question be, what might the mind achieve, thus 
set free, we are to judge from, not the average, but the 
maximum of its present powers. " The rarest and most 
admirable performances of the favored few who have 
far outdone their competitors are to be assumed as the 
measure of the abstract powers of the human intellect ; 
and even this measure ought probably to be regarded as 
too low, as the most vigorous and clearest mind still 
labors under considerable disadvantages of a corporeal 
kind." * 

12. Another supposabie reason of incarnation may be 
to restrain, and discipline, and purify the power of ex- 
pression. What the languages of the celestials may be, 
we know not. Possibly they may communicate directly, 

* Physical Theory, p. 89. 



THE HYPOTHESIS. 105 

without intermediate signs ; or they may have a lan- 
guage of surpassing compass and power. But that mode 
of communicating thought and emotion may be the thing 
most injuriousl}' affected by any spiritual disorder, like 
pride or self-conceit, or any other form of selfishness ; 
and if we admit the conception of spciety in its higher 
and complex forms, — thrones, dominions, principalities, 
and powers, — if we admit the idea of conflict, of con- 
troversy, of combinations, and of wide-reaching dis- 
orders, — we may conceive that a reformation of the 
tongue might be most fundamental and most difBcult. 
It may be true in other worlds, as in this, that the 
tongue " setteth on fire the course of nature," and that 
if a being, of any grade or race, offend not in word, that 
same is a perfect being, and able to bridle the whole 
-spiritual body. 

Now, it is remarkable that " language, while it facil- 
itates in one sense our mental operations, does also in 
another impede and limit the play of our faculties, and 
especially of the highest of those faculties." Language, 
" a consequence of our corporeity," is the point of con- 
tact where mind and matter most intimately blend ; 
"mind imparting to the modulations of sound several 
hundred thousand distinctions, which nothing less than 
the boundless refinements of its own conceptions could 
to such an extent multiply and fix," while matter im- 
poses on mind its own limitations. The mind which 
invents and employs a machine is immeasurably supe- 
rior to that machine ; but of all machines, language is 
the most "elaborate in construction, copious in mate- 
rial, nice in its evolutions." " Yet this vast apparatus, 
compared to the wants of mind, is scanty, rude, impli- 
able, inexact, and poor ; it is nothing better than a 
material machinery ; but matter falls vastly short of 
being commensurable with mind." A language is " an 



106 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

operose and cumbrous engine ; " but a mind that speaks 
four or five languag^es can shift from one to the other at 
will. This is " not a proof of great ability in the indi- 
vidual, but a sure indication of the immeasurable (not 
indeed infinite) inherent' power of the human mind." * 

Can we not all appreciate the immense chastening 
effect of such linguistic discipline on the hypothesis in 
hand, and the amazing enlargement and enhancement 
of the power of expression, when, purified, humbled, re- 
stored to health,' the soul shall regain its own real lan- 
guage, its native tongue, commensurate with its immor- 
tal faculties ? 

13. Finally, another supposable purpose is to deprive 
the spirit for a time of an obsequious and perfect instru- 
ment of its will. Such we may conceive the spiritual 
body to have been. But the spirit being supposed more 
or less imbued with pride, may need to be for a time 
deprived of the unrestiictei use of that body ; not de- 
prived of that body itself, but of its unrestricted use. 
We may understand that the spiritual body becomes in- 
carnate as well as the spirit ; that it is within us -now, 
but in a sense bound and imprisoned. The animal body 
seems to us as though it had a will of its own. " The 
body serves the soul in order that the soul may more 
effectively serve the body ; as if a brute held a man in 
bondage whom it compelled to lend his superior intel- 
ligence, and whom, for its own purposes, it would cheer- 
fully carry and help at bidding." f 

"Such are some of the supposable reasons for the the- 
ory of incarnation. The facts of our present life, the 
facts of consciousness and of mental philosophy, are as 
if the soul were older than the body. In stating these 
points the author has done little else than follow in 
the track of Isaac Taylor, in his " Physical Theory of 

* Physical Theory, pp. 93-104. f Id. p. 106. 



THE HYPOTHESIS. 107 

Another Life." He reasons from the facts of our present 
life to a future life ; Ave simply take his premises, point 
by point, and often in his own language reason to a pos- 
sible past life. And it must be apparent to every one, 
that, revelation apart, the argument for a future exist- 
ence must be just equal to that for a past. If the facts 
are as if the hj-pothesis of a future life were true, the 
facts are a^ if the hypothesis of a past life were true. 
And so striking is this, that our author, although pro- 
fessedly regarding this life as our initial state of exist- 
ence, continually talks as if it were not, but as if the 
soul were held in captivity in a foreign land. 

We may observe further, respecting this hypothesis, 
that it has a manifest bearing on the most interesting 
problems of the age. On education, because, as Soc- 
rates taught, all learning is a kind of reminiscence ; 
on physiology and j)sychology, and all kindred topics. 
Thus in dreams we may suppose, in addition to auto- 
matic cerebral action, a possible partial liberation of the 
spirit from the bonds of incarnation, and a recovery of 
imperfect glimpses or gleams from a former existence. 
In clairvoyance we may see a still further liberation 
of the spirit, and partial resumption of primeval modes 
of action. In the fact alluded to by physiologists, that 
visions are more characteristic of the earlier and later 
stages of life, we may see a revelation of that primeval 
power just circumscribed in infancy, and just about to 
be disenthralled in old age. In all the phenomena of 
mediumship we see possible traces of an imprisoned 
spirit corporeity more or less acted upon by forces from 
its own native state or sphere ; and finally, in death we 
see the falling down of the temporary tabernacle, and 
the unloosing of the spirit. If, then, we look at the 
actual facts of this material system, especially as actu- 
ally applied under Christian auspices, and as we may 



108 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

easily conceive them applied when rescued from abuse 
and consecrated, what do we behold ? 

We find that there is, on the whole, a certain isola- 
tion of man from the direct control of spirits. They do 
invade ; they do penetrate ; but they are manifestly to 
a great degree as it were dyked out. This they confess, 
and all spiritualists admit. At the same time, the very 
highest classes of spirits, in virtue of their supremacy 
over matter, are able to manifest themselves so far as 
may be needful. Then, the natural relationships of the 
family, and of society, are adapted to teach meekness, 
benevolence, and obedience. The proud, evasive, subtle 
spirit is confined within its own house, or tent, or tab- 
ernacle, by the law of gravitation. It is weak ; it is 
dependent ; it is subjected to an amazing amount of 
tuition, the effects of which our hypothesis permits us 
to suppose permanent. To have controlled this mass of 
matter for threescore years and ten, — to have governed 
it by the golden rule, — to have thought through it, 
with prodigious outlay of vital and volitional spirit- 
dynamics, — maybe found of itself to have chastened, 
and disciplined, and every way improved the character. 
Even those not reformed by it may not be as bad as 
they would have become otherwise. 

The family state is especially adapted to the results 
contemplated by the hypothesis. While husband and 
wife are drawn together by the master passion, the' rela- 
tion is one requiring self-control and self-denial. The 
beauty of itjs that it tends to teach tliese things. Love 
itself is teacher. The most exquisite felicity rewards 
every act of true nobleness and self-devotion ; and for 
"fifty years two sj^irits made one in this holy union are 
learning the elements of heaven. And the ingenuity of 
the contrivance ! — the exquisite moral mechanism of it ! 
It is the masterpiece of Infinite skill. 



THE HYPOTHESIS. 109 

Then the parental relation. The father and mother 
are, by analogy, to their children what God is to his 
children. Thus, in an additional and impressive sense, 
man is made in God's image, not merely, as all rational 
spirits must be, by reason, affection, and will, but by 
being placed in a quasi creative headship of a household 
or kingdom. Thus the parent is being taught by expe- 
rience to appreciate the emotions and principles of God, 
and how the behavior of his creatures must affect Him. 

He is also taught — and by a long, long schooling of 
years — the necessity of self-control, self-government, 
self-denial, condescension, in order to control children. 
All the qualities which we may suppose by the hypoth- 
esis selfish spirits were deficient in, are here taught, and 
taught by love. Parental feeling is so sweet, the beauty 
of childhood so winning, the joy of doing right so heav- 
enly, that parents are won to better things by almost 
irresistible motives.* And the infant all the while, sup- 
posing father and mother to carry out the divine idea, 
in worshipping them is indirectly worshipping God. Its 
docility, its faith, its petitions, its adoring love, its grand 
pride in father and mother, are all the very elements of 
the feeling due to God, and easily transferred to him as 

* "The rearing of offspring affords the highest discipline for the 
faculties. The parental instinct is everywhere that which calls out the 
energies most persistently, and in the greatest degree exercises the 
intelligence Parenthood produces a mental exaltation not other- 
wise producible Men who were random grow steady when tliey 

have children to provide for ; and vain, tlioughtless girls, becoming 
mothers, begin to show higher feelings, and capacities that were not 
before drawn out. In both there is a daily discipline in unselfishness, 
in industry, in foresight. The parental relation strengthens from hour 
to hour tlie habit of postponing immediate ease and egoistic pleasure to 
the altruistic pleasure obtained by furthering the welfare of offspring. 
There is a frequent subordination of the claims of self to the claims of 
fellow-beings ; and by no other agency can the practice of this subor- 
dination be so effectually secured." — H. Spencer's Studies of Sociol- 
ogy, p. 371. 



1 



110 SPTEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

the powers expand, and He is made known as the true 
father of all. 

Then come society, the state, the church, agricul- 
ture, commerce, finance, science, art, — in all which, 
such is the analogy between the material system and the 
larger moral universe, man is indirectly studj'ing the 
problems of eternal empire, and developing quasi cre- 
ative faculties proper to the heir of God and joint-heir 
with Christ. 

That such a system could be abused is manifest. The 
hypothesis is such that it not only could be, it would 
be, it mast be, as certainly 8.s the gallant ship will be 
abused by the tempest which it yet outrides. That the 
abuses of such a system w.ould naturally be precisely 
those abuses which we actually see in the histor}^ of this 
world, it is easy to show. On no other hypothesis can 
it be so readily shown why the majority of the race, 
antipodes in place as in character, and philosophj'-, and 
system, should agree in a dogma so painful as trans- 
migration. On no other hypothesis can the universal 
prevalence of sacrifice, of oracles, of spirit-manifesta- 
tions, of hero-worship, of nature-personification, be so 
consistently explained. No other hypothesis comports 
so well with what we may call the experimental nomen- 
clature of the Bible, the phraseology of religious expe- 
rience. 

Religion — a rebinding of the soul to God. 
■ Redeemr — to buy back into liberty. 

Restore — to replace a lost treasure in the treasury ; 
a lost sheep in the fold ; a diseased body in health. 

Renew — to make over au old thing, as it was when 
first made. 

Return — to come back again to one's place. 

Reconcile — to reunite alienated hearts in their old 
affection. 



THE HYPOTHESIS. 



Ill 



Revive — to bring to life again, life being the neces- 
sary logical antecedent of death. 

Regeneration — a second natural birth by reincarna- 
tion ; and a second spiritual birth into the original celes- 
tial state and character. 

Resurrection — a term perfectly synonymous with the 
preceding, in its full extent. 

Repentance — recommencing to do right. Only a 
being once holy can repent. 

Reform — bring back into the form which was first. 

Remember God — implies that men have known him 
once, but have forgotten him. 

Restitution of all things — literally, to set things np 
as they were before they fell down. 

To aAvake — to be roused out of sleep. Nobody can 
be " asleep " who has not first been " awake." 

To waeh, cleanse, purify — imply the removal of con- 
tracted defilement. 

Atonement — the Hebrew word is ' cover,' implying a 
state of nakedness and exposure which is to be covered. 

Justification — every creature is presumed innocent 
till proven guilty. To justify is to restore one to his 
original good standing in law, either by disproving the 
charge, by pardon, or by execution of penalty. 

There is an abundance of experimental terminology 
in Scripture which we cannot particularly examine. We 
are wanderers, exiles, orphans, lost sheep, astray on the 
mountains in a dark and stormy day ; we are foreign- 
ers ; we are mariners unmooring for the home voyage. 
Everywhere the same general conception : God is our 
father, heaven our home. We seek fatherland (naiQidu^. 
Jerusalem above is mother of us all. There the old fam- 
ily mansion is pictured as standing ; there is the dear 
old family record, our names hi Father's handwriting, 
not blotted out yet by all our sins. We have forgotten 



112 SPIRITUAL MAKIFESTATIONS, 

home, but home has not forgotten us. Every name is 
where Affection inscribed it the day we were born. 
There is joy there when one sinner repents, — 

" And angels in their songs rejoice, 
And say, ' Behold he prays ! ' " 

We are asleep, and dreaming ; we are not ourselves ; 
we are delirious ; we wander. But we shall come to 
ourselves ; we shall awake ; we shall remember ; it will 
all come back to us. Perhaps it will not seem so very, 
very long as it looks to us now. It may seem as though 
a thousand years were but as a watch in the night. We 
shall remember all that went before ; we shall remem- 
ber all of our earth-life that we wish to remember. Our 
sins and our crimes God will enable us to forget ; He 
will blot them out forever. And, O how thankful shall 
we be to that Love that has patiently waited and ex- 
pected through the long tragedy of ^ges, and that says, 
" It is meet that we should rejoice, for this my son was 
dead, but is alive again, and was lost, and is found." 

We commend this hypothesis, then, to the consider- 
ation of spiritualists, as one already in part taught by 
an influential section of their own body, and as largely 
sanctioned, as to its main feature of pre-existence, by 
the suffrages of the masses of mankind in all ages, and 
by some of the sweetest poets (those truest seers and 
singers) of the world, teaching us that — ■ 

" Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ; 
The soul that rises with us, our life's star, 
Hath had elsewhere its setting, 

And Cometh from afar : 
Not in entire forgetfulness, 
And not in utter nakedness. 
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come 
From God, who is our home." 



PRIMEVAL SPIRITUALISM. 113 



I 



CHAPTER XIII. 

PRIMEVAL SPIRITUALISM. 

F now we have succeeded, in any measure, in leading 
our spiritualist readers to regard patiently our hy- 
pothesis, we invite their attention to some of its promi- 
nent historical bearings. 

If the Eden tableau was exhibited, as we have sup- 
posed, at a great historical crisis, either at the introduc- 
tion of the incarnate race, or at the introduction of a 
late and improved variety, or family of the race, then it 
would be natural to expect some institution of religious 
worship at the threshold. 

This, in common with many eminent expositors, we 
do find in the simple announcement : " And he placed 
at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubim, and a 
flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way 
of the tree of life." * Now, we wish to show, that, al- 
though from the extreme conciseness of the narrative 
the cursory reader might not be aware of the fact, yet 
we have here a record of the institution of a system 
of religious worship. 

The Israelites were familiar with statues of complex 
animal forms, which were stationed at the gates of Ori- 
ental temples. Moses himself had superinteuded their 
construction for the tabernacle, and mentions them 
briefly as though perfectly well known. 

* Gen. iii. 24. 



114 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

The following is the command .given to Moses in ref- 
erence to their construction : " And thou shalt make 
two cherubim of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make 
them, out of the two ends of the mercy-seat. . . . And 
the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, 
covering the mercy-seat with their wings, and their faces 
shall look one to another ; toward the mercy-seat shall 
the faces of the cherubim be. . . . And there I will meet 
with thee, and commune with thee, from above the 
mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are 
upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I 
will give thee in commandment." * This mercy-seat, 
or golden cover of the ark in which was deposited the 
ten commandments, or law of love, was simply the 
throne of God in Israel. And when the tabernacle was 
erected, we read : " Then a cloud covered the tent of 
the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the 
tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the 
tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, 
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." f 

The radiating point from whence this intense lustre, 
this glory proceeded, we conceive to have been from 
over the mercy-seat, between the cherubim. We can 
imagine a lambent flame, so bright, so dazzling, so pene- 
trating in its effulgence that it transfigured, as it were, 
the whole structure, causing it to shine and glow afar. 
" For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by 
day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the 
house of Israel throughout all their journey." Now, if 
we conceive of this intense illumination from within, as 
emitting flashes of light, as coruscating, streaming afar 
with broad beams or blades of spleudor, we can conceive 
what impression the Israelites might receive from the 
words, " a flaming sword that turned every way." And 
* Exod. XXV. 18-22. t Ex. xl. 34. 



PRIMEVAL SPIRITUALISM. 115 

we may also conceive what tliey would imderstanrl by 
such an expression as " he tabernacled at the east of the 
garden of Eden cherubim." They would understand he 
enshrined the cherubim in a tabernacle, with the dazzling 
glory of the Lord shining forth on all sides, from the 
mercy-seat between the cherubim. 

Now this is precisely the expression Moses does in fact 
use. " He tabernacled the cherubim at the east of the 
garden of Eden." Says Kitto : " The word rendered by 
our translators ' placed,' signifies, properly, ' to place in 
a tabernacle,' an expression which, viewed in connection 
with some incidents in the after history of the primeval 
family,* seems a conclusive establishment of the opin- 
ion that this was a local tabernacle in which the symbols 
of the divine presence were manifested." 

The brevity of the statement implies a general famil- 
iarity with the objects mentioned. Complex figures 
were so common, and so constantly associated with 
temples, that the idea of any explanation being needful 
could not arise. Moses had just erected " a tabernacle." 
He had just placed cherubim in it; and if he incor- 
poj-ated in his narrative extracts from ancient docu- 
ments, which he found in Egyptian archives, docu- 
ments handed down, possibly, from before the flood, 
from a time when that primeval tabernacle might be yet 
standing, the significance of such a picture-word as 
" tabernacled " to his own mind, and to the minds of 
the Israelites, becomes strikingly manifest. 

Hence, in reading the narrative, the Israelites would 
naturally understand that this was done, substantially, 
for the same general purposes aimed at in their own 
tabernacle system. For example, their own taber- 
nacle, with its cherubic mercy-seat, was an oracle. 
The apostle mentions it as one great advantage pos- 

* Gen. iv. U-16. 



116 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

sessed by Israel over other nations, that " unto them 
were committed the oracles of God." * And Stephen 
says they " received the lively oracles." f This is the 
use they actually saw made of their own tabernacle. 
" And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the 
congregation to speak with him (Jehovah), then he heard 
the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy- 
seat that was upon the ark of the testimony, from be- 
tween the two cherubim." ^ Unto this oracle all mat- 
ters of controversy were to be referred, as to a supreme 
court of last appeal. " If there arise a matter too hard 
for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, plea and 
plea, stroke and stroke, then thou shalt get thee up unto 
the place that the Lord thy God shall choose ; . . • and 
shalt come unto the priests and inquire ; . . . and the 
man that will not hearken unto the priest that standeth 
to minister there before Jehovah thy God, . . . even 
that man shall die." § Naturally, the Israelites, in read- 
ing of a cherubic tabernacle at Eden's gate, and of 
"going out from the presence of the Lord,"|| would 
think of that as an oracle of the same kind. 

In the temple of Solomon we find the holy of holies 
called by this name : " the oracle he prepared within, to 
set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord." ^ It 
was an apartment about thirty feet in length, breadth, 
and height, overlaid with pure gold ; '' and they stretched 
forth the wings of the cherubim so that the wing of the 
one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other 
touched the other wall, and their wings touched one 
another in the midst." On the doors and walls there 
were carved and on the hangings embroidered cheru- 
bim, and palm-trees, and flowers. Into this oracle was 
brought the original ark made by Moses, and placed 

* Rom. iii. 2. f Acts vii. 38. J Num. yii. 89. 

§ Deut. xvii. || Gen. iv. 16. 1 1 Kings vi. 19. 



PRIMEVAL SPIRITUALISM. 117 

under the wings of the cherubim. Here, then, there 
were two sets of cherubic figures : those originally made 
of beaten gold, of one piece with the cover of the ark ; 
the others, of larger size, made of olive wood overlaid 
with gold, on high above the ark. This, perhaps, may- 
account for the fact that Isaiah seems to see seraphim 
above the ark;* — the same objective emblems being 
reproduced in vision, but with certain modifications, and 
intensifications, proper to the ecstatic state. The sera- 
phim thus would be simply the larger and loftier pair of 
cherubim, — two different names for substantially the 
same symbol. 

In his dedicatory prayer, Solomon indicates in a most 
impressive and beautiful manner the design of this edi- 
fice ; and among other things, that it is for all nations, 
— " that all people of the earth may know thy name 
and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel." So Christ 
afterwards said. It is written " my house shall be called 
a house of prayer for all nations." Now, at the close 
of this sublime dedicatory prayer, " the glory of the 
Lord filled the house, and the priests could not enter into 
the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had 
filled the Lord's house." 

If now we understand that the central point of illu- 
mination was as before that lambent flame above the 
mercj^-seat, and that the Avhole temple was, as it were, 
interpenetrated, transfigured with its effulgence, we can 
conceive what Israelites would understand by the brief 
statement, " he tabernacled cherubim and the flaming 
sword at the gates of Paradise." And the same element 
of catholicity might suggest itself to their minds, that that 
was designed as a place of prayer for all nations ; that 
that was a " lively oracle," where men might seek re- 
sponses from the living God. Hence Jehovah was de- 

* Isa. vi. 



118 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

scribed as " The Lord of Hosts, that dwelleth between 
the cherubim." * And in devotional exercises this ex- 
pression became common : " O thou that dwellest be- 
tween the cherubim, shine forth." f " The Lord reign- 
eth, let the j)eople tremble ;/ he sitteth between the 
cherubim, let the earth be moved." J " O Lord God of 
Israel, which dwellest between the cherubim, thou art 
the God of all the kingdoms of the earth." § 

Hence this inner sanctuary, or oracle, was called " holy 
of holies," and is explained to be a type of Heaven. || 
Hence the ark was God's throne or mercy-seat ; Jerusa- 
lem was styled the holy city, or city of the great king ; 
and God was said to place his name there, to dwell 
there, and as it were to make it his home, — " the place 
of my rest." The entire Hebrew ritual was based on 
this idea of a divine home, or house of the Lord, and 
that from that centre of love, and domestic attraction, 
sin was the only excluding power. The Lord could not 
thus intimately dwell among men, unless they repented 
of and confessed their sins, and obtained forgiveness. 
This was the design of all the sacrifices and ceremonial 
purifications. Every sacrifice was a confession of sin, 
and a covenant with a forgiving God. Well then might 
Jewish writers say that the cherubim were " the foun- 
dation, root, heart, and marrow of the whole Levitical 
dispensation." Would it not be inevitable, then, that 
the Hebrew mind, in reading that brief sentence,. " he 
tabernacled cherubim and a flaming sword," should' re- 
ceive the impression that the Lord instituted a system 
of worship, in some respects at least like their own, 
especially when the historian immediately speaks of Cain 
and Abel bringing their offerings ? 

Thus far we have found the cherubim described as 

* I Sam. iv. 4. f jPs. Ixxx. 1. J Ps. xcix. 1. 

§ 2 Kings xix. 15. |1 Heb. ix. 



PRIMEVAL SPIRITUALISM. 119 

objects formed by man. There are three cases in which 
they are described as seen in vision, namely, in Isaiah,* 
in the opening chapters of Ezekiel, and in the Apoca- 
lypse. 

These visionary figures are still emblematic, as really 
so as those made of beaten gold. The difference is, that 
being exhibited in vision, the representation is more im- 
pressively majestic and mysterious. They burn, they 
glow, they sparkle, they are covered with eyes ; there 
are awful wheels ; there are explosions as of thunder ; 
the rushing of their wings is as the noise of a host ; the 
whole pageant seems alive ; it moves up or down, this 
way or that, like lightning. Two pairs of wings only 
are visible when the throne is in motion, three when it 
is at rest. Manifestly, however, it is one and the same 
emblem with additional elements suggestive of intensity 
of life and power. No such shapes exist. It is by 
analogy we are to interpret them. By analogy they de- 
note, not individuals, but certain organizations in the 
spirit-world intimately connected with the divine admin- 
istration. Further than this we cannot go, consistently 
with the scope of our present work. 

We merely observe, that it is not necessary to sup- 
pose that an Israelite of Moses' time, or of the time of 
Samuel, or of the age of David and Solomon, in reading 
the passage in Genesis, " he tabernacled cherubim," 
would naturally think of such forms as Isaiah, Ezekiel, 
and John describe, for those descriptions were not then 
extant ; but they might have conceived of forms such as 
Moses and Solomon made. Whether the forms actually 
enshrined in the Eden tabernacle were of human con- 
struction, or a kind -of spirit materialization, we cannot 
decide. 

The usual conception, probably, of the casual reader, 

* Isa. vi. ^ 



120 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

at the present day, is purely conventional, — that the 
cherubim were angels stationed in broad daylight, with 
blazing swords in hand, to keep Adam and Eve from get- 
ting back into the garden. This is not the idea Moses 
must necessarily have meant to convey. If a later Jewish 
writer, of the age of Solomon, had said, " Moses taber- 
nacled the cherubim at Sinai," every child in Israel 
would know what he meant. So every child in Israel 
to-day can see that Moses may have meant substantially 
the same thing as occurring in Eden, namely, that God 
erected a house of worship, and instituted a cherubic 
oracle, and appointed sacrifices and other rites of con- 
fession of sin and worship. There was indeed the idea 
of temporary exclusion from the tree of life, but insep- 
arable from it the idea of a return to that tree. To 
keep the way of the tree of life, was not to keep it shut 
forever, but for the present, while strongly suggesting 
its being hereafter opened again. It was to keep it from 
being shut forever. The word implies, to watch, to guard, 
as if a treasure; to keep safe, to protect, to preserve, to 
retain, reserve, &c. And if we suppose that to Adam, 
the first priest and patriarch of this Eden tabernacle, 
some explanation was given of these emblems, and by 
him handed down, we can see how in one most impres- 
sive sense that tabernacle did " keep the way of the tree 
of life " from total oblivion, in the traditions and sacred 
rites of all ages and all nations, and how that sanctuary 
and that ritual was the original religion, from which, 
by corruption on the one hand, and additional revelation 
on the other, have flowed all subsequent religions of 
the great historic races. 

The farther back we go in the ages, and the nearer 
we approach the most primitive times, the more we find 
certain grand features impressed on the monuments of 
the nations. Their temples are often on high places, 



PRIMEVAL SPIRITUALISM- 121 

connected with graves and gardens, and sacred fountains 
and streams ; they have holy places and most holy places ; 
they have in many instances various constructions re- 
sembling a serpent and a sacred tree ; and above all, 
they have complex images, more or less corresponding 
to the cherubic forms, and often of colossal size, impres- 
sive even to sublimity, at the gate-ways of their sacred 
enclosures. 

Moses lived on the Nile. That imposing Egyptian 
system, claiming, perhaps, to be the original Eden sys- 
tem, was before his eyes every day. He did not need a 
page to describe what he meant. One picture-word was 
enough. The Eden tabernacle stood before his mind's 
eye, and stands before ours, filled with the glory of the 
Lord, all ablaze with His majesty, transfigured as it 
were, and its beams of splendor shooting out on ever}'- 
side. It was the presence of the Lord, — "a house of 
prayer for all nations." We appeal to all true spiritual- 
ists to admit this beautiful conception. If you believe 
in the manifestation of higher powers now, you can 
believe in it then. If it is called for now, when the 
world is so advanced in science and knowledge, it was 
then, when civilization was less mature. If to you the 
responses of your household circle seem precious, if the 
" materialized " forms of the departed are in your view 
wonderful and admirable, surely the responses of this 
first family oracle, and the splendors of a manifestation 
essentially divine, will seem to you far more glorious ! 



122 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE DAWN OF PEOPHECY. 

IN nature we behold the " struggle for existence " 
everywhere going on ; certain species being gradu- 
ally killed out, and certain other species surviving. 
Geology shows that this has been the case in all ages. 
The world is, and always has been, in both vegetable 
and animal kingdoms, in air, earth, and sea, one wide 
battlefield. 

Into this battlefield, under these analogies, the sacred 
historian in Genesis ushers new combatants. Man, the 
latest, highest, noblest species, appears, in conflict with 
a serpent, or dragon enemy, — and the survival of the 
fittest is again to be exemplified as the result of age- 
long development in antagonism. As if to lend intensity 
to the conception, a dramatic scene is improvised. The 
stage a terrestrial paradise, fitted up with most significant 
scenery ; and after a vivid tableau vivant, the Creator of 
the whole system appears upon the stage to announce 
in few words the plot, or plan of the coming drama of 
ages, in a declaration of war. He who has been depicted 
with matchless brevity as re-creating the heavens and 
the earth, and all races therein, plants and animals in all 
their varieties, now stands forth as if to declare, "I have 
made this world to be a battlefield," and here shall the 
struggle for existence between man, and orders older but 
less worthy of survival than he, be fought out to its con- 
clusion. " I will put enmity between thee (the serpent) 



THE DAWN OP PKOPHECY. 123 

and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; 
thou shalt bruise his heel, he shall bruise thy head." 

Sixty centuries have rolled away since that an- 
nouncement. How has human history unfolded ? Has 
it been in keeping with material analogies, and with this 
impressive announcement ? Has not the human race 
had a dim impression of an unfriendly agency in the 
'"invisible realm? And do we not, as we look back, per- 
ceive that there has been a war upon man ? And is it 
not a striking fact that the powers unfriendly to man 
have struck at man through woman ? There may have 
been some attempts, in ethnic religions, to elevate and 
ennoble woman, but in general she has been degraded. 
In some systems it has been taught that woman has no 
soul. In most cases, she has been made a sensual toy, 
or a servile drudge. Classic civilization, however beau- 
tiful in some of its conceptions, and however we may 
give it credit for trying to honor woman, never truly 
and permanently ennobled her. Knight-errantry, with 
all its chivalrous extravagance, failed to think honorably 
of woman. 

Modern civilization has too often insulted woman, in 
the act of crowning her queen of fashion and goddess 
of love. Is there no latent hostility to woman in the 
constant caricature of her whole being by the laws of 
fashion ? What is woman, according to the teachings 
of the Parisian demi-monde, who must tell Christendom 
how the wives and daughters of Israel ought to behave ? 
How does Fashion paint her portrait ? She too often 
disfigures the beauty of face and form, injures the 
health, poisons the complexion, and makes her dress 
such that each generation appears ridiculous to the next. 
In all time the arrow aimed at man's well-being has 
transfixed woman's heart. 

The necessary consequence of this lias been the ap- 



124 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

parent war on childhood. Degraded as the human race 
may have become, the parental instinct would seem 'to 
be strongest of all, and to have retained most of its 
original sacredness. Yet in ppite of maternal fondness, 
a strange invisible power has blighted the fair blossoms, 
so that half the race die in infancy. Some cast wailing 
into the fires of Moloch, some thrown to the crocodiles 
of the Ganges, some exposed on the hills of classic* 
Greece, some slain in war, some slain in the womb, and 
some gasping out their sickly lives in countless forms of 
malady and distress. Half the race dying in infancy ; 
and those that live, do they not sometimes live in spite 
of the education they reoeive ? There are localities' 
under Christian auspices where childhood is happy, 
where education is a little like what it should be ; yet 
those localities are but a small part of the whole globe, 
and even at the best, education is imperfect. The best 
parent feels most acutely his own deficiencies in this 
respect. But take the world through, savage, bar- _ 
barous, half-civilized, and civilized, and through what a 
sad and painful ordeal do children come up into life ! 
And if you look at this with the eye of a philosopher, 
3"ou will see a method in the madness, a plan under- 
lying the age-long campaign, as if a skilful general were 
striking at the race in its weakest point, — the very se- 
cret of the art of war, — by striking at woman and her 
seed. 

And when in the fullness of time there appeared on 
earth that wonderful child Jesus, in whom humanity was 
to recognize its ideal, and who constantly spoke of him- 
self as the Son of Man, that promised seed around whom 
the age-long conflict must revolve in closer and closer 
circles, do we not see tokens of invisible attention fixed 
upon him — portentous — malign ? Is there not a power 
behind the scenes striking at him from first to last? 



THE DAWN OF PROPHECY. 125 

Witness the massacre of the innocents by Herod, the 
temptation in the wilderness, the agony in the garden, 
the scenes of Calvar}^, — do we not see in all this the 
enmity against the woman and her seed brought to a 
focus upon the person of that Just One ? And ever 
since, that same hostility has manifested itself, not only 
against woman, the family, and childhood, but against 
the larger family formed among believing households, a 
few believers associating for mutual help and for wor- 
ship, a little circle of love, a church. Wherever there 
is one that is really happy and heavenly, a home of the 
soul, how soon does something strike at it, and leave it 
bruised and bleeding ! Or else, by outward ease and 
prosperity she is beguiled, deceived, and changed into 
an organization of corruption and oppression. Thus in 
all ages and world-empires there has been a false and 
persecuting Church, drunk with the blood of saints, 
represented under the form of a woman riding upon a 
wild beast, and on her forehead, " Mystery, Babylon the 
great Mother of Harlots, and abominations of the earth." 
And in her, that is in the city of spiritual confusion and 
despotism, "was found the blood of prophets and of 
saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." As 
much as to say, the corrupt hierarchies of Egypt, Baby- 
lon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and all great world-empires, 
are substantially one ; certain general principles charac- 
terize them all ; they are modulations of one sombre 
theme, and in connection with civil despotism have been 
the instruments of moral war against the true woman 
and her seed. So has been fulfilled, and so is fulfilling 
to-day before our eyes, one part of the primeval declara- 
tion of war. ^ 

How, then, does history exhibit the other side of the 
g'reat contest ? One thing we see, that woman was en- 
nobled, and marriage sanctified from the beginning, by 



>c^ 



126 SPIRITUAL MAITIFESTATIONS. 

the patriarchal Jewish, and Christian economies. Polyg- 
amy indeed crept in, but in violation of law. " From 
the beginning it was not so," said Jesus. De Coulanges, 
in " The Ancient City," shows how in the most ancient 
Aryan races marriage was a sacred institution created 
by religion. The Hebrew law was express: " Thy king 
shall not multiply wives unto himself." The general 
tendency of the Mosaic legislation was to protect, refine, 
and ennoble woman and the family ; and notwithstand- 
ing the repeated apostasies and ultimate rejection of the 
nation, such has been the effect of the system. The 
Hebrew wife and mother, and home, is for purity and 
sanctity, above the average of the nations in the midst 
of which that remarkable race is captive. 

One cause of this has been the constant and scientific 
use of the nomenclature of the marriage covenant to 
represent by analogy the relationship between the Lord 
and his people. The nation is now " the virgin daugh- 
ter of Israel " espoused to the Lord ; and now, a bride, 
a wife, a mother. " Thy Maker is thy husband." So 
constant and copious a usage must have had an enno- 
bling effect upon the ideas and associations of the people. 
Woman, wife, mother, daughter, father, son, the family,^ 
the house or home, all were imbued with dignity and 
sacredness by this constant divine impersonation. And 
this is brought to a climax in the scenes of the incarna- 
tion. In a world where every thought connected with 
marriage had been extensively corrupted, where ascetic 
ideas were widely prevalent, teaching the impurity of 
matter, and defiling the mind by the notion that the 
sexual relation was in itself sinful, — in such a world, a 
virgin daughter of Israel, a betrothed bride, becomes, 
without prejudice to her nuptial vows, a mother by the 
power of the Holy Spirit. " The Holy Ghost shall come 
upon thee, and the power of the highest shall over- 



THE DAWN OF PROPHECY. 127 

shadow thee, therefore, that holy thing that shall be 
bom of thee, shall be called the Son of God.'^ The 
tendency of this to ennoble woman and maternity has 
been incalculable. And in spite of the corruptions and 
apostasies of the era following, it has had its effect. 
This has been one marked feature of the defensive part 
of the war ;— shielding woman and her seed against the 
attack, and nourishing her even when chased by the 
dragon into the wilderness for twelve hundred and sixty 
years. Side by side with this defensive war there have 
been significant premonitions of a final offensive cam- 

Clarence King, in his late address before the Sheffield 
Scientific School, shows that the line of geologic 
science lies midway between Catastrophism and Evolu- 
tion, or gradualism. Cuvier and the old geologists 
went to one extreme : all past changes in earth's strata 
had been sudden and violent — catastrophic. Lyell and 
modern geologists have gone to an opposite extreme: 
no sudden and violent crises ; no convulsions, cataclysms, 
upheavals ; all strata formed slowly as we now see them 
in process of gradual deposition, through almost infinite 
periods. In a masterly way Mr. King shows from the 
rocky records of this continent, that the truth lies be- 
tween. There have been long ages of gradual forma- 
tion, and there have been crises of swift and violent 
activity. 

So in what we may term the Moral Geology of the 
past. Christ compares it to a field tilled and sown and 
then apparently forgotten; until in time of harvest 
suddenly the sickle is thrust in. 

The field was tilled and sown when the Lord taber- 
nacled the cherubim at the gates of Eden. There is 
condensed in four or five words the church history of an 
epoch. He set up a ritual of worship. Then, through 



128 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

the antediluvian period things were left apparently to 
gradualism, until the harvest of iniquity ripened, and 
the earth was filled with violence, when suddenly there 
was a rush of waters and an ark on the face of the deep. 

That was an effective stroke of moral military catas- 
trophism, dealt at the head of the dragon enemy. Again 
the field was tilled and sown, and another long interval 
of seeming neglect, until idolatry became universal, but 
one family being left uncontaminated. From that family 
Abraham is called ; one reason being given, " I know 
him that he will command his children, and his house- 
hold after him, to keep the way of the Lord." That is, 
in his line, family government and training would retain 
some vitality. 

How corrupt the rest of the world had become, is 
shown in Sodom ; and in the fate of the Cities of the 
Plain we have another instance of moral catastrophism. 
" The Lord rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and 
Gomorrah, and the smoke of the cities went up as the 
smoke of a great furnace." And the apostle says those 
doomed cities were set forth an ensample, an emblematic 
specimen. To the eye of imagination those fires are 
ever falling, and the smoke rising up to heaven. 

Then follows another long period of gradualism, and 
apparent neglect, until, at the Exodus, moral catastro- 
phism again bursts upon us. We see Israel (the woman 
and her seed), with loins girt, staff in hand, at mid- 
''night, eating the paschal lamb, in houses every one 
marked with blood on the door-posts, and the angel of the 
Lord abroad in the land passing over those houses, and 
in every Egyptian house the first-born dead ! 

The whole period of the life of Moses and Joshua was 
catastrophic, a period of what is called supernaturalism, 
(which on the divine plane of thought is eminently 
natural,) when a shock was given to the world, and 



THE DAWN OF PROPHECY. 120 

(hs has been Scaid of Waterloo) the universe changed 
front. 

This alternation of gradualism and catastrophism was 
repeated all through the era of the Judges. We see it 
exemplified, from time to time, in the history of the great 
world-empires, down to the time of Christ. Now, Jeru- 
salem herself, after a long period of gradualism, is the 
field overgrown, and apparently neglected. Jerusalem 
becomes herself the corrupt persecuting power. Messiah 
is slain ; the Church persecuted, and scattered, until 
suddenly, the city is besieged by Titus, destroyed with 
unexampled horrors, and Israel led away captive into all 
nations. 

There was a mighty blow at the dragon power. The 
teachings, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of 
Christ, all together, were an immense development of 
moral catastrophism. Great as the effect has been in 
this world, the effect in worlds unseen was greater. Its 
greatest effect in this world is yet future. Its first sub- 
limest effect was in realms unseen, the higher spheres of 
celestial existence. The dragon was vanquished and 
cast down, and we hear the shout of victory pealing 
through the empyrean, " Rejoice ye heavens and ye that 
dwell in them ; for the Accuser of our brethren is cast 
down, that accused them day and night before God ! " 
This was a tremendous blow at the head of the dragon. 

The defeated powers, expelled from other realms, re- 
tieat upon this world, which tlms becomes, not merely 
a battle-ground, but the battle-ground on which is to 
come the shock of battle of the great day of God Al- 
mighty. 

Then follows another long period of gradualism, the 
woman and her seed flying to the Wilderness, — and the 
great apostasy running its course. God seems to sleep. 
The ages are dark. The world seems given over to 

y 



130 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

civil and ecclesiastical despotism. But the seals are 
opening, the trumpets sounding, and the vials being 
poured out, till a period of catastrophism arrives more 
tremendous than all preceding. The dragon is bound, 
shut up in the abyss, and the atmosphere of human 
thought is purified. Here the sublime epic pauses, and 
again we are surrounded by the emblems of Eden, the 
tree, and river of life, the paradise of God ; and in the 
midst of the garden, on the banks of the river, a mar- 
riage festival is celebrated. " The marriage of the Lamb 
hath come, and his bride hath made herself ready." 

There is a new heavens and a new earth, because the 
material system being now understood in its pure and 
purifying inflluences, and spiritual analogies, it is to man 
as new as if he had never seen it. Till now it has been 
abused by hostile powers of air. Now for the first time 
it is used by those in the unseen for whom it was made, 
and by them with infinite skill applied to the renovation 
of the nations. The family state is new ; wedded love is 
new; maternity new ; childhood new ; there is no more 
dragon enmity against the woman and her seed ; woman 
has no wrongs, infancy no tears ; therefore man is re- 
deemed. God wipes away all tears. And he that sits 
upon the throne says. Behold I make all things new. 
And yet it is the very same world ; the same solid ground ; 
the same bright sky ; the same continents ; the same dear 
familiar scenes ; — new, because perfected, idealized. 
New, because all husbands are loving, all wives faithful, 
all parents in the image of God to their children, and 
children in loving them love God. New, because sick- 
ness, disease, and death disappear, earth overflows with 
populations of more than antediluvian longevity, and 
generations of children rise more beautiful than painter 
dreamed, to be trained for heaven, and translated with- 
out tasting death. Then will science, art, literature, 



THE DAWN OF PROPHECY. 131 

and wealth be stimulated and vitalized, and consecrated, 
and progress accelerated beyond all we can now imagine. 
And far beyond all this, the climax, when man, the Race 
Elect, purified and ennobled by suffering, shall be en- 
throned in the dominion over the Moral Universe, the 
interrupted work of creation be resumed, race after race 
spring into being, forever and ever. 



132 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE TITANS. 

WITH this brief glance at the actual outline of 
earthly history, we return to attempt an examina- 
tion of some of the principal crises of development. Our 
idea of human history is, that it is from beginning to end 
a sublime process of spiritual manifestation. And how- 
ever our view may be shut within " the flaming walls of 
this life," we recognize the fact that the controlling 
forces lie largely without those walls, even as the forces 
that control the tides of ocean are not mundane forces, 
and as the changes of seasons, and the phenomena of 
growth and reproduction, are controlled by forces ex- 
erted millions of miles away. It has been suggested 
that meteorological changes may depend upon a uni- 
versally diffused atmospheric medium, so that the 
change of a barometer here may be but the echo, as it 
were, or vibration ^f a change in Sirius, and in every 
other star in the universe. 

True, the innate forces of individual souls, and of 
families, and races, are immense. The mainspring coiled 
up in every human breast is tough, elastic, and of pro- 
digious strength of recoil. So also are the forces of en- 
vironment great, from climate, food, social organization, 
and the many influences represented in that single word, 
education. We do not lose sight of this, nor undervalue 
it in studying the problems of history ; but while individ- 
uals and nations have strong idiosyncrasies, and while 
social forces originating here are potent, there are spir- 



THE TITANS. 133 

itual forces of great power exerted upon individuals 
and nations by intelligences unseen, — and these are on 
the great scale the grand historic forces ; so that while 
men are pieces and pawns on the chessboard, the game 
is played from behind the veil. 

We have spoken of the cherubic tabernacle system 
instituted at the gates of Paradise. The design of that 
system was "to keep the way of the tree of life," to pre- 
serve the knowledge of man's celestial origin, his tem- 
l)orary exile, and his final restoration, and to furnish him 
in the meantime with an oracle, or means of reliable 
intercourse with the spirit-world from which he was an 
exile, at the same time fencing out all unfriendly spirits 
as far as practicable. It was necessary to do this so as 
to interrupt trains of association, arrest the formation 
of selfish habits, suspend discouraging memories, pro- 
vide the soul with a castle of privacy, the body, — place 
it in a world of material analogies of. spiritual truth, of 
immense stimulating power, — and in family and social 
relations, all of them teaching the first principles of 
self-denial and humility, thus giving the young prodigal 
a chance to take a new departure. 

Yet, lest he should slumber too deeply in animalism, 
it was wise to reveal to faith, though not to memory, 
the fact of his lofty origin, and his predestined return ; 
to kindle a glorious beacon-fire at the threshold of the 
emblematic paradise to light his pilgrimage through the 
night-watches of time. Thus the Lord virtually says to 
him, " Hear what the heavens are telling of me, by day 
and by night ; listen to my voice in the soul ; and if 
these do not suffice, if you are in doubt and need an 
infallible teacher, here in this tabernacle you may call, 
and I will answer. All other teachers, visible or invisi- 
ble, are fallible, and may mislead ; here is absolute truth 
and certainty. Me you can trust in the last resort, and 
me onlv." 



134 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

It is from this source that we conceive all the varied 
religions of the principal historic nations have sprung ; 
and many of the beautiful traits of classic mj^tliology 
are but faint gleams of that cherubic glory, — alas, how 
faint ! — and overshaded by clouds of fable, and nature- 
personification, and legendary lore. Yet it did keep 
alive all over the world some dim notions of an original 
righteousness, of a golden age now lost, but destined 
to return. All churches to-day, — Roman, Greek, Nes- 
torian, Armenian, Protestant, — though they have lam- 
entably sunk the antetype in the type, do affirm, while 
they cannot explain, the sublime truth of man's original 
righteousness (without which our views of sin inevitably 
become superficial), so that the cherubic tabernacle did 
keep, even for us, the way of the tree of life. 

Now, by our hypothesis we are constrained to form 
some conception of the motives influencing the cosmo- 
cratic powers in their treatment of the material system ; 
some conception of the policy they adopted and why 
they adopted it ; and its possible relation to the policy 
of organized bodies of spirits friendly to man ; and how 
these interacted, and how far they modified each other. 

In addition to the intrinsic difficulty of such a task, all 
spiritualists will see at a glance, that we pursue it under 
some special difficulties of considerable delicacy, being 
exposed, as it were, to a cross-fire of criticism on the 
one hand from scientific schools, on the other from the 
various schools of philosophy and religion. To neither 
would we wish needlessly to expose ourselves. Yet, 
reasoning as we do with spiritualists on premises held by 
us and them in common, (and how else can reasoning 
be carried on except on common grounds ?) we must 
shape our arguments accordingly, and not resort to 
some lines that might be legitimate if we were dealing 
directly with either of the above-mentioned classes of 
thinkers. 



THE TITANS. 135 

All spiritualists will readily see that in attempting to 
conceive of the plans and motives of celestial orders 
however hostile, we must try to look at things from 
their point of view, as if not abstractly right, at least 
justifiable on some grounds of expediency. Spiritualists 
do not admit the conception of an unmixed or absolute 
malignity, or wickedness ; they conceive of sinful pas- 
sions and habits as being substantially the same in that 
world as in this. Hence they can easily conceive of such 
a thing as a hostility to the divine plan, which should be 
as it were latent, and unconscious, as in this life selfish 
people are enemies to God's benevolent plans, often 
without being aware of the fact. It will not be difiQcult 
for spiritualists to conceive of leading intelligences being 
actuated by a self-righteous spirit, by ambition, by pride, 
by resentment of supposed wrongs or affronts ; and as 
either justifying the use of deceit, at least for good ends, 
or of being so habituated to it as not to realize its 
sinfulness. 

If, then, the question be, Why should a combination of 
powerful spirits hostile to man exist, what could be their 
motive, and what the objective of the age-long cam- 
paign ? it is not difficult to suggest possible answers. 
The fact of such evil spirits existing in great numbers, 
more or less harmful to men, all spiritualists admit. It 
is easy, in a general way, to conceive that the leaders 
may have been threatened with removal from high official 
stations, which they had corrupted by pride and a self- 
righteous spirit, and that this occasioned resentment, 
jealousy, and a natural effort to defend their adminis- 
tration while clinging to power. 

It is true that spiritualists generally, so far as our 
reading has extended, ignore the existence of any such 
being as the devil or Satan is usually considered to be. 
Now, Whately well remarks that there is no proposition 



136 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

against which objections, and possibly unanswerable 
ones, may not be urged. The question is, whether the 
same or even stronger objections could not be urged 
against every alternative proposition. 

Now suppose a proposition something like this : — Sa- 
tan's power is official or political power, not yet entirely 
taken away, but in the process of being taken away, by 
disclosure of the evil effects of his principles. Concede, 
now, that objections, and even unanswerable ones, might 
be started against this proposition, what are the alter- 
natives ? 

1. No devil at all, and no evil spirits, — theory of 
mere materialistic evolution. 

2. An eternal evil principle, — Zoroastrian and Man- 
ichean hypothesis. 

3. Any and every theory that condeives of him as a 
convict escaped from prison. 

4. Theory of immense numbers of spirits more or less 
depraved, but without organization, — an army without 
a general, a community without a head. 

Are there not more numerous and equally unanswer- 
able objections against every one of these four alterna- 
tives, particularly the last ? If so, then, according to 
the principle stated by Whately, spiritualists would, 
consistently with their own principles, fall back on the 
proposition previously stated. Let us endeavor to study 
the developments of history from that theoretical stand- 
point. And let us bear in mind that it is very useful for 
a pupil at the blackboard to work out his problem to the 
end, even if there be an error in the statement. The 
problem of history has been studied from the point of 
view of the alternative propositions ; let us try and 
look it through from this. The cosmocratic powers, 
the haute noblesse, or aristocracy of the skies, may be 
supposed to look upon the exiled race with something 



THE TITANS. 137 

of that mingled feeling of scornful pity with which 
people of rank, and noble blood, and aristocratic habits, 
have regarded the vulgar herd, — the feeling of the 
Pharisee for the publican and sinner ; the feeling of the 
elder brother, in the parable, for the prodigal. Perhaps 
they looked down on mankind as the sweepings of 
heaven, — the offscourings, the scum, and canaille ; they 
possibly felt as moral people feel about " the criminal 
classes." It has often been noticed that the character 
exhibited by Satan in the Book of Job is not that of 
wilful malice, but rather that of the censor, or public 
accuser. The Pharisees were zealous for the law, and 
severe in their condemnation of sinners. May it not be 
in this respect that Jesus told them they were of their 
father the devil, namely, that that strict, self-righteous, 
unmerciful spirit they breathed was substantially like 
his spirit, so that if we want to know what sort of a 
being he was, we look at them. 

They did not hesitate to plot and scheme, and employ 
all the arts of intrigue, just as men in official station always 
have done, without much consciousness of guilt. May it 
not have been so with higher principalities and powers ? 

Now, on any such hypothesis, man being in some 
measure withdrawn from the full effects of their censure, 
their scorn, and by incarnation shielded against them, 
how might they be inclined to treat the system ? Sup- 
pose it may possibly have been intimated to them, that 
they ought to use the system reformat! vely ; that they 
ought not to cherish scorn ; that they ought to feel com- 
passion, and exercise self-denial ; how might they regard 
such counsel, not merely towards men as individual 
offenders, but towards a vanquished political party, — a 
rival race, conquered, expelled, disgraced ? 

We might conceive of their admitting the abstract 
truth of the intimation, and undertaking to act accord- 



138 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

ingly, yet with a certain rancor lurking in their 
hearts. They might still resent the proposed exaltation 
of man to universal dominion, even though apparently 
forever defeated. Might they not have latent misgiv- 
ings whether it was forever defeated ? Might they not 
ponder the import of those Eden emblems, and that 
declaration of war ? But if such a conception as that 
of man's exaltation be supposed to seem to them too im- 
probable to occasion a moment's disquiet, yet the mere 
suggestion might keep alive a certain smouldering jeal- 
ousy, a certain proud and contemptuous resentment. 

Certainly, they would be good friends of the abject 
race, but it must know its place. We may conceive 
they felt towards men somewhat as the princely planter 
of the South, even the most genial of them all, feels in 
accepting the situation towards his quondam chattels. 
This may be a very imperfect comparison. Let it not 
be pressed too far. Suppose something approximating 
to this — analogous to it. 

Of course it is conceivable that the supernal orders 
might in some respects be unceremonious and unscru- 
pulous towards men. They might feel that men had no 
rights which angels were bound to respect. And the mere 
fact of being somewhat shut out from access to them, 
whether for scorn or for friendship, might tempt them to 
interfere, and to trespass. And, possibly, the idea might 
suggest itself to some of the more adventurous, on see- 
ing these their quondam celestial associates moving about 
in material forms, to wonder how it must seem, and to 
think of trying the experiment. Not by the, perhaps, 
painful process of birth ; for, as has been suggested, 
possibly a spirit must painfully die out of that mode of 
life, to enter the grave-like womb, and rise from the dead 
by birth ; — not in that uninviting manner, but by the 
exercise of creative or semi-creative sway over matter, 



THE TITANS. 139 

assuming a human organism more or less permanent, 
and condescending to the level of the abject race. In 
which case there might be attractions such as have 
been known to exist between different races in this 
world, patrician and plebeian, prince and peasant, mas- 
ter and slave, so that " when men began to multiply on 
the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto 
them, the sons of God saw the daughters of men that 
they were fair, and they took them wives of all that 
they chose." * 

Tliere was nothing in the conception of such a con- 
nection inconsistent with ancient modes of thought. 
Angels were conceived of as possessing celestial bodies, 
and endowed with power to assume forms of flesh and 
blood at will. It is only in comparatively recent times 
that a different philosophy has prevailed, leading ex- 
positors to put a different construction on the above 
passage. Many of the most eminent recent inter- 
preters, however, have returned to the ancient con- 
struction. The phrase " sons of God" having been in 
other passages of the Old Testament understood to mean 
angels,t no good reason can be assigned for giving it a 
different meaning here. Some manuscripts of the Sep- 
tuagint so translate it, and this reading was followed by 
Philo, by Joseph us, by the author of the Book of Enoch, 
and by Peter and Jude. This reading is found in the 
Alexandrian manuscript, which is followed in the edition 
uf the modern Greek Church, sanctioned by the Synod 
of all the Russias ; also, by the edition of the English 
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. J In the 
Epistle of Jude we read of " the angels that kept not 

* Genesis vi. 1-4. 

t Job i. 2 ; xxxviii. 7. Ps. xxix. 1 ; Ixxxix. 6. 

X History of Oi^inions on Future Retribution. E. Beecher, D. D., 
pp. 88-91. 



140 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

their first estate (or principality), but left their habita- 
tion ; " and this is characterized as a " going after strange 
flesh," or forming connection with a foreign race or 
species.* In the Second Epistle of Peter, also, we read 
that " God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast 
them down to Tartarus, and delivered them into chains 
of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." f 

It is mainly on these two passages, and possibly one 
or two others,! that the conventional notion of the Devil 
and his angels as beipg already convicts, in a penal state, 
rests. A small foundation for so large a doctrine. Not 
only do not Peter and Jude identify the angels by name 
and title, but the latter makes a quotation from the 
Book of Enoch, showing the train of association of ideas 
that was passing in his mind. Now the Book of Enoch 
limits the number to two hundred, and mentions their 
names ; but Satan is not among them. The Bible, 
therefore, is not responsible for a theory which would 
practically represent the Divine government as carrying 
on a war of ages against a convict escaped from penal 
incarceration. The Bible, by any fair principles of in- 
terpretation, knows nothing of such a theory. On the 
contrary^ Paul, who, as all spiritualists admit, was a seer, 
and had enjoyed abundant revelations of things unseen, 
and who was well qualified to testify on a point like this, 
expressly locates the leading spirits hostile to humanity 
in Heaven. § 

As to the question of the reality of the angelic mar- 
riages, we really cannot see why spiritualists, for whom 
chiefly we write, should deny their possibility, or even 
their probability. It would simply be a case of mate- 
rialization on a larger scale than has been yet witnessed 
in modern days. Tlie only question is, whether, on the 

* Jude vi. 7. t 2 Pet. ii. 4. 

X Is. xiv. 12 ; Lu. x. 18 ; Rev. xii. 7-9. § Eph. vi. 12. 



THE TITANS. 141 

hypothesis proposed, an adequate cause or occasion for 
such a development can be conceived of as existing ? 

Grant, then, that the material system is designed, as 
shown in previous chapters, to be a kind of shield to the 
exiled race, and to dyke out currents of undesirable in- 
fluence, what more natural than an effort to break in ? 
What more natural than that it may have been done by 
subordinates, possibly only connived at by the chief 
cosmocratic princes ? Political leaders cannot always 
control their subordinates in this world ; and the more 
fiery spirits of a party or a people may initiate a war or 
a revolution in spite of their rulers. It may not have 
been even connived at ; but having come to pass, (like a 
raid across the borders between two empires,) the celes- 
tial cabinet may have inly pondered how to turn it to 
account. They may have conceived the idea of a mag- 
nificent world-empire under these novel conditions, in 
which a certain immortal vigor should blend with mor- 
tality, and the infant race burst into splendid precocity 
of genius, in the arts, sciences, and their manifold applica- 
tions to social development. What would this be but 
the swollen current overleaping the barrier, or bursting 
through it at ever}^ crevice? It would be in one sense, 
as seen from the higher point of vision, natural that 
spirits should do such a thing, under the supposed cir- 
cumstances. 

Would not this also naturally account for much that 
we find in classic tradition and poetry ? * Might it not 
also assist in accounting for the very early development 
of certain races in the arts and sciences? It was the 
constant tradition of antiquity that the angels taught 
their brides the elements of superhuman knowledge. 
On such a supposition, might not Egyptian and Babylo- 
nian art and science, and in especial magical science, be 

* How many heroes and great men claimed to be Jove-born I 



142 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

accounted for, without materially extending the received 
Scripture chronology ? With angelic instructors and 
pupils of millennial longevity, progress would be rapid. 
And it is a fact often noticed, that the further back we 
go in the history of the Adamic family, the more we are 
impressed with a sense of the high development in art 
and science to which they had attained. We seem to 
meet man on a down grade from previous high culture. 

It is obvious, also, that such a development, under 
such auspices, might be expected to grow corrupt. Where 
there was no fear of death, where there could be little 
to humble pride, or to repress ambition, or quench the 
fires of passion, it would be natural that the earth should 
be filled with violence. And this again might serve 
naturally to account for the catastrophe of the deluge. 

The needed isolation of the race had b§en interfered 
with — practically nullified. Without catastrophism, 
without some signal retribution, it might be impossible 
to prevent such abuses in future, and to carry out the 
beneficent design. But if we suppose the offending 
angels suddenly stripped of the power to lay off the 
bodies they had assumed ; immortals caught as it were 
in a trap and exposed to a form of death peculiarly 
dreadful, in circumstances so arranged as to make the 
whole a sublime type * or tableau ; then we see that not 
only would such incursions be checked, but impressive 
meanings be shadowed forth by analogy for the instruc- 
tion of all future generations. And if we conceive of 
the cherubic tabernacle as still standing through all 
this period, we shall find little difficulty in imagining the 
antagonism of feeling indicated in the prophecy of 
Enoch : " Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of 
his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince 

* 1 Peter iii. 21, speaks of the preservation of Noah's family in the 
ark as " a type." 



THE TITANS. 143 

all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly 
deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all 
their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken 
against him." * 

* This is not the proper place to discuss the physical objections which 
have been made to the account of the deluge. We claim that they may 
be met by the theory of a limited area, and a limited number of ani- 
mals preserved mainly for typical purposes. A few leading species of 
a given district would be, typically, or representatively, all species. 
The difficulty has arisen from overlooking the typical and emblematic 
nature of the catastrophe. 



144 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

EISE OF POLYTHEISM. 

IF the view we have taken of the Eden tabernacle be 
admitted, it will be found, on reflection, eminently 
suggestive. What was it ? It was a domestication of 
the Lord ; it was a domestic religion. The tabernacle, 
or tent, was the Lord's dwelling-place ; He kept house 
there. There was the altar, the speaking flame, the 
daily meal, or show-bread. That was "the presence of 
the Lord." In the immediate vicinity of that tabernacle 
Adam, as patriarchal priest, lived ; he may have lived 
in it. The priests were indeed excluded from the Le- 
vitical tabernacle as an abode, and only entered it on 
specified occasions to minister. That exclusion possibly 
may not have characterized the Eden tabernacle, since 
it was from the garden man was then excluded, and that 
idea of exclusion did not need to be repeated. 

The Septuagint, instead of saying, " he tabernacled 
the cherubim," says, "he drove out Adam and housed 
him QxajwiCLasp avTOp') before the paradise of the tree of 
life, and established the cherubim." Perhaps the fact 
was that the Lord " housed," or tabernacled, both the 
cherubic speaking flame and Adam. In the genealogy 
of Christ, it saj^s, on tracing it back to Adam, " which 
was the son of God." The fact indicated may be that 
the Lord and Adam dwelt together. In Revelation, 
where the Eden emblems seem to rise around us, we 
read, " Behold, the tabernacle (i^ (Txrjvii) of God is with 



RISE OF rOLYTHEISM. 145 

men, and lie will dwell QaxTjaaei') with them." * The 
picture is of father and son dwelling in the same tent. 
Perhaps it was so at the gates of Paradise. The Lord 
(by his speaking flame) lived there, in the same tent, 
perhaps, with Adam (the son of God) and with Eve, and 
''wiped away all tears from their eyes," — tears wrung 
from thera by exclusion from the beautiful garden. 

It was a domestic religion then ; and it was in Adam's 
case a true ancestor-worship, for was he not tlie son of 
God? — not the worship of a deceased ancestor, but of 
a living One, as most beautifully symbolized by that 
speaking flame. It was not in the first instance a pub- 
lic worship, external to their dwelling. They did not 
go forth from their tent to seek a temple or to raise 
their eyes to the sky. The direction of their thought in 
worship was toward the interior of their own tent, the 
penetralia of their own home ; the object of their adora- 
tion was within — penitus, whence the term "penates," 
for household gods. 

In this worship Eve participated, as one with her 
husband ; for he called their name Adam, and she was 
"bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh." Hence the 
sacred, the religious character of marriage, since it not 
only made woman a wife, but a priestess, man being by 
the idea of this domestic worship the priest of the fam- 
ily. Hence Jesus, in restoring marriage to its original 
divine simplicity and purity, goes directly back to Adam, 
when he said, " For this cause shall a man leave father 
and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they twain 
shall be one flesh." 

When the Titanic marriages were formed, it is con- 
ceivable that primitive customs were rudely innovated 
upon. - The lovely daughters of men may have been 
seized by bright flashing forms, and borne with songs 

* Rev. xxi. 3. 

10 



146 . SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

and illuminations to their new abodes. Hence possibly 
the singular marriage rites in some nations running back 
to an unknown antiquity, — the no^nrj^ or bridal pro- 
cession, with torches, and music, and certain songs, — 
6 iiirjv h ifievaie, the derivation of which is utterly lost. 
Hence the pretended violence with which the bride- 
groom carried the bride, after a feigned resistance, into 
his dwelling, being careful not to allow her foot to 
touch the threshold. May not all this be a faint rem- 
iniscence of angelic courtship in the days before the 
flood? 

It may be possible that those angelic marriages were 
at first regarded as a most rapturous and sacred mani- 
festation. Far from perceiving the consequences that 
would flow from them, men may have regarded them as 
something divine, something ecstatic and holy. Hence 
the words used by the celestial visitants, on such occa- 
sions, might be caught up and employed on similar occa- 
sions, and handed down as a ritual, at least in some lines 
of descent, and linger among men — the last faint ves- 
tiges of the "tongues of angels" — ages after their 
origin is buried in oblivion. 

If, however, it be conceived that the cherubic taber- 
nacle itself was not the actual dwelling of Adam, then 
we can conceive that the Lord "housed " him in a sep- 
arate tent, in close proximity to the cherubic tent ; and 
in that tent we can easily conceive an altar on which an 
imitative flame was kept ever burning, — a flame kin- 
dled, perhaps, from the cherubic fire. In this case the 
same things would be true ; that altar and that flame 
would symbolize the same living presence, and every 
meal would be a sacrifice, when a portion of the food, or 
a libation, might be consumed by the ancestral fire. 

If, now, we conceive of the children of Adam, we 
shall see what ideas they would naturally have. The 



RISE OF POLYTHEISM. 147 

idea of the interior would be associated with worship. 
The interior, the within, the penates, would naturally 
come to be suggestive of the altar-flame, and the living 
ancestor, whose emblem it was ; and as time rolled on, 
and population increased and extended on every side 
with a wider frontier, we can conceive what changes 
would be natural — in fact inevitable. 

The further away in time and space, the more they 
would confuse and confound together elements asso- 
ciated by ties of veneration and affection. Two oppo- 
site modifying causes would work : in some households, 
the progressive stimulus of Titanic civilization ; in others, 
the conservative tendency to cling to forms, and rites, 
and usages, with the gradual loss of vitality, and the 
sinking down from the spiritual reality to the material 
sign or emblem, — a process inevitable as they felt the 
tendencies to barbarism inseparable from frontier life. 
Thus, while the sacred fire might be cherished in each 
tent, it might come to be regarded as itself divine ; and 
when the mortal ancestor died, so long and intimately 
associated with the Lord, the living ancestor, his shade, 
or manes, might easily be associated with that living 
ancestor, and confounded with him as an object of do- 
mestic invocation. Thus the flame, the penates, would 
come, as time rolled on, to denote, in some families at 
least, the deceased ancestors, and thus a polytheistic 
worship gradually spring up. 

We have already shown that the sun is a divinely 
created emblem of Deity, in its relations of light and 
heat to the natural world, — even as man himself is an 
emblem, by his relations to the household ; these two em- 
blems would easily be confounded, and thus we should 
find the worship of ancestors and of the heavenly bodies 
associated with the hearth in the tent, the altar-flame, 
the penates, and manes, and the worship of the dead. 



148 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

This view of the subject throws light on the prophecy 
of Noah after the deluge : " God shall enlarge Japheth, 
and shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; " or, as the Tar- 
gum of Onkelos has it, " and will make his glory to 
dwell in the tabernacles of Shem." That is, he will con- 
tinue in that line the primeval domestic religion with 
somewhat of primitive purity, resisting the corruptions 
which assailed it, and at length reinstating it with special 
features in the Levitical system. 

Now it is curious that the idolatry so infectious to the 
Israelites, and traces of which run back to the family of 
Abraham in Chaldea, is such as this view would lead us 
to expect. It was both a domestic ancestral worship, 
with its teraphim, or penates, gods of the interior, and 
a worship of fire and of the heavenly bodies ; and it is 
curious that, if we examine the languages of Greece, 
and Rome, and India, we find certain words, certain 
rites, certain laws, very much alike, pointing backward 
to a very remote antiquity, when these three peoples — 
explain it how we may — had the same language, and 
laws, and religion.* But the striking fact is, that at 
the very earliest period to which we can ascend by an 
examination of language, rites, and laws, we find a do- 
mestic religion substantially such as we have shown 
would naturally result from the Eden tabernacle. We 
merely glance at the fact here, reserving a more full 
consideration for a future chapter. 

Thus regarded, we can conceive of the ancient polj^- 
theism as in one sense the original divinely revealed 
religion. It had elements of eternal truth and heavenly 
beauty. Its votaries could sincerely regard it as of di- 
vine origin and sanction ; and however " the fine gold 
might become dim," — however gross the corruptions 
might in time become, — traces of the original beauty 

* See The Ancient City. De Coulanges. (Lee & Shepard.) 



RISE OF POLYTHEISM. 149 

and truth would still be there, and the process of 
change, being gradual, would not be noticed. That 
process would be substantially the same in all the 
Adamic races, with such diversities of detail as would 
easily spring from mental idiosyncrasy and from envi- 
ronment. 

It has even been maintained by some that the wor- 
ship of the dead, or nether gods, preceded the worship 
of the greater or supernal deities ; but the reverse is 
quite as probable, to say the least. It is quite con- 
ceivable that the family deities displaced the older celes- 
tial divinities, just as we see the invocation of saints in 
the middle ages largely displace the worship of God. 
It is easy to see that at an early period in the very re- 
mote past a similar process might naturally go on more 
rapidly, and result in a total loss, in some families at 
least, of the worship, and even of traditional memory 
and titles, of the true God. In other families, or races, 
these might be retained, and in different degrees ac- 
cording to circumstances. And it is only by keep- 
ing in mind these various causes, all of tliem of great 
power, — (1) the original Eden emblem^ handed down 
and corrupted ; (2) the analogies of the material system ; 
(3) innate idiosyncrasies ; (4) instinctive cherishing the 
memory of deceased parents; (5) the direct agency of 
spirit-communication, — that we can account for all the 
phenomena of ancient polytheism. Attempts have been 
made to solve the problem by some one or two of these 
causes, but in vain. We need them all, especially the 
last. Admonished by the shock of the deluge, the cos- 
mocratic powers must seek other methods of controlling 
the course of empire. When by degrees the worship of 
ancestors had crept in, a way was open by which to 
control the living in a less direct and perilous manner. 
The extreme antiquity of necromancy and magic in all 



150 SPIKITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

their forms is shown more and more clearly by every 
fresh discovery in Assyrian and Egyptian remains. That 
the cosmocratic powers m.a.j have designed by such 
means to found great and imposing empires of worldly 
splendor, is easily conceivable ; but facts showed it was 
an instrumentality they could not regulate. They could 
not prevent abuses from creeping in, from the wayward- 
ness of the spirits communicating, and from the selfish- 
ness of men. Their oracles would degenerate, would 
become tainted with fraud, would be prostituted for 
gain and the gratification of the passions. 

Earthly rulers have often tried to rule well simply 
from selfish motives — to enhance their own grandeur 
and obtain renown. Is it not conceivable that the same 
should have been the case with the invisible principal- 
ities ? Spiritualists, at least, cannot consistently object 
to such a view. 

Such motives may appear to work well for a season. 
They may generate strong governments, with much 
splendor ; but they tend to corruption. Ignorant and 
selfish masses cannot be really well governed without 
sincerity, pity, and a self-denying spirit. Pride, fraud, 
and brute force cannot be made to work as well as the 
opposite qualities. The cosmocracy perhaps thought 
they could, and the Lord allowed them ample time and 
scope for the experiment. 



THE FRIEND." 151 



CHAPTER XVII. 

"THE FRIEND." 

THERE are two conceivable ways in which Divine 
benevolence might deal with the nations when the 
primitive Eden religion had become corrupt: one coex- 
tensive with the race, and aggressive ; the other limited 
in rangfe, and as it were defensive. The latter was the 
method, in fact, adopted. A single nation was selected, 
not because essentially better than other nations, for 
they were " a stiff-necked people ; " they were centrally 
located, and through them the original Eden system was 
revived with increment, with a view of finally influ- 
encing the race by a morally aggressive movement. 

We read : " The living God in times past suffered 
all nations to walk in their own ways ; nevertheless he 
left not himself without witness in that he did good, and 
gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our 
hearts with food and gladness." * The field was tilled 
and sown, and apparently neglected ; but it was only a 
seeming neglect, for a divine friendliness characterized 
the whole arrangement. The whole material system, 
with its sunshine and rain, was ever benignly inciting to 
gratitude, and its analogic language stimulative to the 
moral nature. A fair field was left for the innate devel- 
opment forces of man himself, and for the skill and be- 
neficence of cosmocratic powers, if so be they chose to 
rule wisely and benevolently. And when men showed 
that they " did not like to retain God in their knowl- 
* Acts xiv. 16. » 



152 SPIKITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

edge," he did not obtrude himself upon them, but let 
them please themselves, postponing their case for the 
present. " The times of this ignorance God winked 
at." * But yet, while seemingly inattentive, he had a 
plan, which was never lost sight of, even in their territo- 
rial distribution or colonization. 

Thus when on the plains of Shinar there was a ten- 
dency to centralization, when the expansive instinct grew 
sluggish, and men shrank from the privations and perils 
of migration, it became necessary to quicken the cen- 
trifugal forces. And this was easy, on our hypothesis. 
Languages are innate. They lie back, forgotten, some- 
where in the hiding-places of the soul. The Lord only 
needs unlock a cabinet or two, swing open a little ivory 
or ebony door in the soul, and out they come, in Babel 
jargon, or in pentecostal tongues. Varieties of races 
exist in the spirit-sphere antecedent to incarnation. He 
who sends them ^in, knows how to contrive either 
to repress or to develop those idiosyncrasies. " Two 
nations are in thy womb," he says to Rebekah ; as if 
those nations were then waiting, while these their 
avant couriers led the way, one supplanting the other, 
and grasping him by the heel. The one, a red man, 
hirsute, wild ; the other fair and delicate : the savage 
Edom, the civilized Israel ! 

So when as yet "all the earth was of one language 
and of one speech" on the fertile banks of Euphrates, 
and in the unseen all the tribes of the tenth chapter of 
Genesis were waiting at the door, how easy, while sending 
in precursors of the several races, to relax a little the 
bonds of oblivion from the faculty of language, so that 
in the course of a few years a confusion of tongues would 
arise, and the diverse families, yielding to the innate 
impulse, resume the outward march to their predestined 
homes. 

*" Acts xvii. 30. 



" THE FRIEND." 153 

111 this dispersion, however, naught was left to chance, 
whether in respect to time or place. The Lord had " de- 
termined the times before appointed, and the bounds of 
their habitation ; that they should seek the Lord, if haply 
they might feel after him, and find him, though he 
be not far from every one of us."* Their location had 
reference to the order of time in which they shouhl 
successively feel the effects of the development going on 
in the central nation, and respond to it by seeking the 
Lord. 

Compare this witli the statement of Moses: "When 
the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, 
when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds 
of the people according to the number of the children 
of Lsrael. For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is 
the lot of his inheritance." f Call to mind, also, the 
many passages in which God is spoken of as having a 
" purpose " or plan, a " counsel," a "myster}'," — that is, 
a comprehensive plan or outline of human development, 
faintly sketched in prophecy, but not fully revealed to- 
mankind, — and this plan pivoting upon Israel and the 
Holy Land. Then glance at the map, and see how Pales- 
tine is nearly the geographical centre of three continents ; 
and how the great historic nations have in fact arisen 
successively at increasing distances from that centre, — 
Egypt, Assyria,, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome; 
and how between the system of thought at that centre, 
and the systems of these nations, and through them 
others outlying still more remote, the great law of 
action and reaction has gone on from age to age, — and 
we shall feel that, imperfect as our chronology may be, we 
liave the key to the actual historical development of our 
present civilization. Outside of these territories and these 
nations lie shadows and chaos ; here in Israel, and the 
♦ Acts xvii. 2G, 27. f I>eut. xxxii. 8. 



154 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

great nations surrounding, light shines out of darkness, 
and order is educed from confusion. Central as it was, 
however, it was a strong military position mainlj in a 
defensive sense, and in a great spiritual campaign of 
centuries. By what law of natural selection was that 
geographical centre fixed upon, to be the centre of 
spiritual development which it in fact has been ? To 
''inherit" that land is, in an impressive, spiritual sense, 
to be " the heir of the world." By what law of evolu- 
tion, or natural selection, was that inheritance deter- 
mined in the line of Shem, and to the descendants of 
the Chaldean sheik Abram ? 

Our answer is, that it was a moral selection, in which 
spiritual motives came in play. It was indeed a problem 
of higher politics ; it was also a problem of affection. 
A government of love, truth, and meekness was to be 
initiated there, on the only principles on which a family, 
neighborhood, state, world, or universe can be happy ; 
and a selection is made, not of an existing nation, not 
of a colony, or church, or state, but of a single genial, 
noble-minded man, to lead the way as pioneer. Here 
forces come into play that are not mechanical, not pon- 
derable, not subject to chemical analysis, — the forces 
of moral affinity, of sympathy, of congenial tastes and 
aspirations. 

Among all the populations of the earth, what was one 
man ? A mere mustard-seed — a mere speck of leaven. 
But it was that germ, that moral seed, the Lord was 
looking for, and found. The Lord wanted something 
more than a mere agent, more than a machine, more 
than a great mill-wheel, — He wanted A Fkiend, one 
whom He could love, and who could love Him, — and 
that was a very Natural Selection for Him to make, 
who is Nature's very self. 

" The God of glory appeared unto our father Abra- 



"THE FRIEND." 1,35 

ham in Mesopotamia," says Stephen.* The God of glorj-, 
who by the Shekinah flame had tabernacled with Adam, 
who had promised to dwell in the tents of Shem, ap- 
peared to the man of His choice. It was a S[)iritual 
manifestation, and (on the highest plane of thought) a 
perfectly natural one. " Get thee out from thy country, 
and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I 
will show thee." 

It is the first mention of that land which, by common 
consent, is known all over the world as the Holy Land. 
And when he entered the land, the Lord appeared to 
him again, and said, " Unto thy seed will I give this 
land." Yet Stephen is careful to remind us " he gave 
him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his 
foot on. Yet he promised that he would give it to 
him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as 
yet he had no child." He was there as "a pilgrim and 
stranger." He sojourned in tents. He went through 
the land in its length and breadth. He visited Egypt, 
the nearest and first in order of the great world-empires 
involved in the plan. He returned. Wherever he went 
he buiided an altar. Several times the Lord appeared, 
and each time the promise grew more emphatic and com- 
prehensive. " All this land which thou seest, to thee 
will I give it and to thy seed forever. And I will make 
thy seed as the dust of the earth ! " 

Wherever he goes, we find him building an altar and 
offering sacrifice, and receiving communications from 
the Lord. In this connection, the appearance to him of 
the Prince of Righteousness, after his return from the 
rescue of Lot, ceases to be anomalous. It was simply 
an instance of materialization. " Abraham rejoiced to 
see my day," said Jesus afterwards, " and he saw it and 
was glad." Then he saw it when the Prince of Peace in 

* Acts vii. 2. 



lo6 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

person, on the site of the future Moriah, presented him 
the eucharistic emblems, and doubtless explained to him 
their import. " He saw it and was glad." 

There was a divine friendship manifested towards 
Abraham in these repeated interviews, which is pecul- 
iarly attractive. " Fear not, Abram," said the vision, 
" I am thy shield ; " and again and again the Lord ap- 
pears to him in this friendly manner, repeating the 
piomise with increasing clearness, entering into a cove- 
nant with him by the customary solemnities, and in one 
memorable instance seeming almost to tabernacle with 
him in a materialized form. He rests under a tree near 
the tent, while the meal is being prepared, with two 
other guests. Abraham washes his feet. The meal is 
set before the three men, and Abraham " stood by them 
under the tree, and they did eat." Then comes that 
matchless scene, unequalled in human literature, where 
Abraham intercedes for Sodom, but vainly, because in 
his charity he felt sure there must be as many as ten 
righteous persons there. 

Then comes the supreme ordeal, the sacrifice of Isaac. 
On Moriah, then a wild jungle, where ultimately the 
Temple should be built, or in its near vicinity, on what 
was after known as Calvary, the patriarch binds his son, 
and is in the act of completing the sacrifice when inter- 
rupted by the heavenly voice. It showed that he be- 
lieved in the reality of that divine manifestation, and 
that nothing commanded by that Divine Friend could be 
wrong. Nor could the promise fail, for He could in- 
stantly raise Isaac up to life again, " from whence also 
he received him in a figure." And here it is, after this 
supreme ordeal, that the promise expands to the widest 
dimensions, — " In thy seed shall all the nations of the 
earth be blessed." The system centring in that land is 
a system of love, of good-will to men, of real kindness, 



"THE FKIEND." 157 

and it will prove itself su<5h by deeds of disinterestedness 
and self-sacrifice which cannot be equalled. 

God treated Abraham as Jesus told his disciples he 
should treat them. "I call you not servants, but 
friends." He showed a true divine friendship to Abra- 
ham, as though he really cared for him, as though he 
liked him, — just as Jesus did to John, who leaned on his 
breast, and is spoken of as " the disciple whom Jesus 
loved ;" — and He made such an impression of reality on 
Abraham's mind, and excited such feelings of responsive 
friendship, that he was ready to do whatever He said, 
without question ; it would all come out right somehow. 
And it is j^leasant to know that among Eastern peoples, 
not only those descended from Abraham, but others, the 
patriarch is known by the simple title The Friend, to 
this day. 

How far the promise, in its future outreachings, was 
unfolded to Abraham, we cannot here attempt to con- 
sider. But that he knew more than modern thought is 
wont to give him credit for, both of a celestial existence 
past and of one to come, is not only probable, in view 
of what has been already said, but seems plainly as- 
serted. " By faith Abraham, when he was called to go 
out into a place which he should after receive for an in- 
heritance, obeyed ; and he went out, not knowing whither 
he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, 
as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with 
Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise : 
for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sara 
lierself received strength to conceive seed, and was de- 
livered of a child when she was past age, because she 
judged liim faithful who had promised. Therefore 
sjjrang there even of one, and him as good as dead, 
so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the 



158 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

sand which is by the sea-shore innumerable. These all 
died in faith, not having received the promises, but hav- 
ing seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and 
embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers 
and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such 
things declare plainly that they seek fatherland (^nuigcdix^. 
And truly, if they had been mindful of that fatherland 
from whence they came out, they might have had oppor- 
tunity to have returned : but now they desire a better 
fatherland, that is, a heavenly : wherefore God is not 
ashamed to be called their God ; for he hath prepared 
for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, 
offered up Isaac : and he that had received the promises 
offered up his only-begotten son, of whom it was said, 
That in Isaac shall thy seed be called : accounting that 
God was able to raise him up, even from the dead ; from 
whence also he received him in a figure." * 

The outline sketched in vision to Abraham we see 
filled out in the history of his descendants, — in the 
beautiful story of Isaac and Rebecca; of Jacob and 
Rachel; of Joseph and his brethren; — scenes from real 
life which no mere literary artist has ever equalled, or 
can equal. 

That which gives the Hebrew annals their chief charm, 
is the reality and truth of that same divine friendship, 
ever and anon manifested ; — to Jacob, in his vision of 
angels ascending and descending the ladder or stairway 
between heaven and earth, the Lord himself standing at 
the top ; also in the nocturnal materialization scene, 
when " there wrestled a man with him till the break of 
day." Through all the family history of Isaac, Jacob, 
Joseph and his brethren, in the scenes that led to the 
.descent into Egypt, and the exodus therefrom, the idea 
of the divine friendship for Abraham is ever prominent. 

* Heb. xi. 8-19. 



" THE FRIEND." . 159 

Even in the history of Ishmael the wild man, '' his 
hand against every man, and every man's hand against 
him," — yet " dwelling in the presence of all his breth- 
ren," as we see to this very day, — this divine friend- 
ship for Abraham expresses itself ; much more, however, 
in the history of the covenant people. 

As Abraham lies in a deep sleep, his posterity seejn 
individualized as an actual present reality, though he 
is yet childless; — Isaac is not yet born; — yet they 
are spoken of as going down into Egypt and returning 
again. " In the fourth generation they shall come hither 
again." Again? Wlien not even Isaac was there? 
" Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs." 
This land, then, this central land, the moral key of the 
globe, is theirs, before even one of them has come 
through the gates of birth ! " I will give unto thee, and 
to thy seed after thee, all the land wherein thou art a 
stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting pos- 
session ; and I will be their God." * 

Men for the most part are such poor creatures, so wil- 
ful, so unreasonable, that one can hardly imagine how 
God can love them much except with a kind of parental 
instinct. Jesus exclaimed to the Jews, " How long shall 
I suffer you ! " John was finer-grained. There was a 
little something in him which Jesus could take comfort 
in. So with Abraham. The Lord " had pleasure in 
him." And it was above everything his implicitness of 
belief, his spontaneousness, his clinging fidelity, that 
made him so agreeable to the divine sensibilities. He 
clung to God. He did not doubt, or dispute, or hesitate. 
He did not speculate, nor ask why, nor demand exces- 
sive demonstration. He did not relapse into incredulity, 
and have to be convinced every time by excessive proof. 
He had seen Him who is invisible, and once was enough. 

* Gen. xvii. 8. 



160 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

'* He endured as seeing him " all the time. He felt that 
any one who had seen Him was blessed. His inmost 
heart thrilled and vibrated like an JEolian harp as the 
breath of God swept across him, saying, " I am thy shield, 
and thine exceeding great reward." 

It is this element of implicit credence, instant compli- 
ance, clinging fondness of docility, which the Lord craves 
in all his children, which he needs, which he must have ; 
the want of which has made all the trouble in this, and 
all other worlds where there is trouble. What can He 
do with children who will not believe him, will not trust 
him, will not come within arm's-length of him ? Here 
was a child, of noble qualities, who responded instantly, 
who never for an instant kept aloof, but gave heart 
and soul and mind and sense at His lightest call. And 
the friendship the Lord felt for that man enveloped all 
' his seed, in spite of their dreadful waywardness, — and 
envelops us even, envelops the whole world, — for a 
similar implicitness of faith makes us Abraham's seed ; 
and the Lord says, " I call you not servants but friends ! " 



I 



THE EXODUS. IGl 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE EXODUS. 

MOSES was of Hebrew blood, but of Egyptian birth 
and education, trained in all the learning of the 
royal and priestly class. Whatever there was of the 
original Eden system remaining uncorrupted in the tem- 
ples of the Nile, he was so situated as to know. What- 
ever of the primeval revelation was of record in the 
archives of the priesthood he could select and preserve. 
Whatever was preserved of any valuable secrets, of 
science, or art, or literary culture, which the " sons of 
God " may have taught the daughters of men, were neces- 
sarily at his disposal. He was undoubtedly initiated in 
the mysteries, and could appreciate at their full value the 
esoteric teachings of the Adepts. He was eye-witness 
of their sacred pageantry, and better situated than we 
are to judge whether there was anything really noble in 
their worship of animals, which seems to us so base, and 
which Paul declared " without excuse." He was per- 
fectly familiar with the doctrine of transmigration as 
then held, and was better situated to judge of its origin 
than we are at this late day. All those scenes in the 
])assage of the soul throughHades, its conflicts, its justi- 
fication, its final glory, were far better known to him, 
than the picturings of the recently translated Book of 
the Dead have made them to us. He knew whether 
the system was pantheistic or not, — a point on which 
eminent Egvptologists are not entirely agreed. He was 
11 



162 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

perfectly familiar with the belief of the existence of 
evil spirits combined under one great head, — a doctrine 
which the Israelites are sometimes said to have acquired 
during the captivity in Babylon, but which the Book of 
the Dead brings out in bold relief. The tradition handed 
down through the tabernacles of Shem was purer, more 
authentic, than that through the tents of Ham or of 
Japheth, or through any supposable mingling of those 
lines with lines of extra-diluvial, or even pre-Adamic 
origin. 

What prevented Moses from inculcating the belief in 
transmigration ? Was it not probably his belief in a 
celestial pre-existence, in purer, more primitive form, 
kept alive incorrupt by the constant intercourse of the 
Lord with the descendants of Shem, and especially with 
Abraham " The Feiend " ? W^s not their knowledge 
that they were " strangers and pilgrims," " seeking a 
celestial fatherland," well adapted to prevent their em- 
bracing the degrading belief of transmigration as it was 
held by their oppressors ? 

What prevented Moses from appealing to fears of fu- 
ture retribution in his legislation ? Was it not because 
it was given him to know that those motives were 
weaker than those pertaining to this material system, 
with its analogies, made by divine Love for the express 
purpose of restraining and reclaiming selfish spirits ? 
Did he not know, as Jesus subsequently declared, that if 
men would not repent and live good lives from the mo- 
tives which could be evolved through the material system, 
they " would not, though one rose from the dead " to drive 
them by the terrors of the unseen ? He saw that those 
motives had been appealed to, to the utmost extent. 
Human imagination cannot conceive of anything more 
terrific than the pictures in the Book of the Dead. What 
good had they done ? The Egyptian lived to worship ; 



THE EXODUS. 163 

but his religion was sombre, and unable to resist the 
progress of social corruption. 

Forty years Moses was familiar with all the knowledge, 
science, art, architecture, and worship of Egypt. But 
then his education was but begun. Forty years more, 
he was at school in the Wilderness of Midian, learning 
the healthful lessons of a pastoral life. Perhaps he 
thought, when he fled from the wrath of the king, that 
his career was ended, his life's work done. Perhaps he 
gave up all his patriotic dreams and ambitions, and con- 
cluded he should never do anything more, except be a 
shepherd. He did not know that he had not entered on 
his public career. He was now at school to Nature ; 
being invigorated in body by pastoral toils, and brought 
closer to God in Nature, and the pure analogic teachings 
of the material system. At eighty he graduates from 
the desert. His diploma is put in his hand by Him who 
tabernacled in the tents of Shem, and he is confronted 
with the magicians of the Nile. He, the representative 
of the living God, Jehovah, whose name, and whose 
self-manifestation in the burning bush, was significant 
not only of life but of intensity of life, purity, power, 
glory. They, the representatives of the gods of Egypt — 
deified heroes, spirits of the dead, elemental spirits and 
angels, emanations from the infinite spirit. He, the rep- 
resentative of Redeeming Love, the same Love that 
revealed itself in the tabernacle at the gates of Eden — 
coming now to re-enact the tableau on a new stage, — 
a God of compassion, sympathy, tenderness, claiming the 
ear of his captive people, claiming their exclusive atten- 
tion to his manifestations. They, the representatives of 
unfriendly invisible powers, selfish, proud, deceitful, 
under whose auspices the civilization of the Nile had 
come to be the pitiless, corrupt, despotic thing it was. 
The contest was brief. " For they cast down every man 



164 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

his rod, and thej became serpents ; bat Aaron's rod 
swallowed up their rods." The same thing took place 
when Aaron smote with his rod the waters of the river 
and they were turned to blood. " And the magicians 
did so with their enchantments." So also with the next 
plague, " the magicians did so with their enchantments, 
and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt." In the 
next plague, however, they failed. " The magicians did 
so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, and they 

could not Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, 

This is the finger of God." 

The spirits aperating through the magicians were of 
inferior grade, their control over matter limited. The 
spirit operating through Aaron was divine ; hence the 
confession, " This is the finger of God." The plagues 
came to their climax on the passover night, in the death 
of the first-born, when God said, " Against all the gods 
of Egypt will I execute judgment." The great idea of 
redemption of a sufferiug race, by breaking the power 
of an older and oppressive race, is here acted out in a 
sublime tragedy. The blood on lintel and door-post ; 
the victim eaten in haste, staff in hand, sandal on foot, 
loins girt about ; the midnight death-wail ; the tumult- 
uous march ; the pursuit ; the passage of the Red Sea ; 
the pillar of fire and cloud ; the catastrophe ; the song 
of Moses, — all are so contrived as to shadow forth by 
the strictest law of analogy a higher exodus — of a 
spiritual Israel from a moral Egypt, through the re- 
deeming interposition of Infinite Love, prostrating the 
principalities and powers of evil. 



THE TABERNACLE. 165 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE TABERNACLE. 

IN the heart of the Arabian peninsula, embosomed 
among mountains, approachable only through nar- 
row, winding defiles, there is a crescent-shaped plain, 
about two miles long and nearly a mile in width. At 
the southern side of this plain rises the rocky front of 
Horeb, more than a thousand feet in perpendicular 
height. So abrupt and sheer is the ascent that the trav- 
eller can advance to the foot of the cliff and touch the 
mount with his hand. On this plain, before this mount, 
a nation of escaped bondmen were encamped, thirty 
centuries ago, to receive from Jehovah the impress of 
national organization. Let us ascend the course of ages, 
and place ourselves in their midst. Early on the morn- 
ing of the third day after their arrival, the slumbering 
multitudes are aroused by unwonted signals. The dark- 
ness is illumined by incessant flashes of lightning, and 
the ground beneath their feet trembles with the explo- 
sions of thunder. They rush from their tents. That 
mountain, so still in its majestic repose but yesterday, 
now presents an awful spectacle of intense excitement. 
Above its summit vast clouds of inky blackness are roll- 
ing, while flashes of electric light dart in piercing bril- 
liance from every part ; the mountain is alive. Con- 
scious of the descending God, it melts, it burns, it is all 
on a smoke. A trumpet, blown by no earthly lip, pours 
its blast long and loud. Aghast the multitudes bear 
back from the sisht. 



166 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

" Speak thou with us, and we will hear ; but let not 
God speak with us, lest we die ! " 

" Fear not, for God is come to prove you, that his 
fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not." 

Then from the midst of the thick darkness, audible to 
the remotest part of that hushed assembly, came forth 
the voice of the Eternal, revealing the law of love. 

" I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee 
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt 
not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness 
of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the 
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth : 
thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve 
them : for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visit- 
ing the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto 
the third and fourth generation of them that hate me ; 
and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love 
me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take 
the name of the Lord thy God in vain : for the Lord 
will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 
Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days 
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work : but the seventh 
day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it thou 
shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daugh- 
ter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cat- 
tle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates : for in six 
days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all 
that in them is, and rested the seventh day : wherefore 
the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it, 
Honor thy father and thy mother ; that thy days may 
be long upon, the land which the Lord thy God giveth 
thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adul- 
tery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false 
witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy 



THE TABERNACLE. 167 

neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his 
ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's." 

So much the Eternal would himself proclaim in tones 
none might mistake or dispute. This was the nation's 
organic law, its magna charta, its constitution. 

The design of the Lord is clearly avowed. " Lo I 
come to thee in the thick cloud, that the people may 
hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever. 
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how 
I bare you on eagles' wings and brought you unto my- 
self ; now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, 
and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treas- 
ure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine, 
and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an 
holy nation." 

The design was to make Israel the pioneer of civil 
and religious liberty for the world, — one that should 
take the lead of the religious development of the race ; 
the oracular nation, organ of divine communication ; an 
educational nation, finally furnishing the world with the 
great teacher, Jesus. "What advantage hath the Jew?" 
exclaims the apostle. "Much every waj^ chiefly that 
unto them were committed the Oracles of God. To 
them pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the 
covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service 
of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of 
whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over 
all, God blessed forever." 

This design, so simple, so intelligible, was by no 
means easy of execution. Egypt was then first-born 
among nations, the mistress of the world's literature, — 
architecture, religion, arts, arms, being early ripened by 
her torrid clime into full flower. How great she was, 
those can faintly conceive who have stumbled over the 



168 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

ruins of her grandeur. What must have been the geo- 
metric science that built the pyramids on a plan in some 
way connected with astronomic laws and calculations ! 
What that mechanic skill that cut, polished, transported 
hundreds of miles, and laid up without mortar, with 
joints almost imperceptible, those Cyclopean blocks, 
which modern appliances can with difBculty handle ! 

If the chaotic remains of an Egyptian temple, with its 
vast spaces, court within court, its cherub-guarded gate- 
ways, its sublime colonnades, now impress the mind 
with awe, what must have been their effect when filled 
with the enchantment of a mysterious and gorgeous 
ritual, — claiming, probably, to be the original divinely- 
appointed system handed down from Eden's gates, with 
traces of Titanic agency upon it, — with its pomps, and 
processions, and skilful appeals to every deepest in- 
stinct, whether of fear, of wonder, or of sensual desire ! 
How almost infinite the power of that absolutism em- 
bodied in the person of that monarch "whose form is 
ever enshrined in the inmost adytum, to whose hands the 
gods are represented on the monuments as delivering 
the falchion, with the command to slay, and slay, and 
slay ! " How difficult the design to set aside Egypt from 
the intellectual and religious primacy of the world, and 
substitute the Hebrews in their stead ! — the Hebrews, 
who came into Egypt some seventy souls, a petty tribe 
of Bedouin shepherds, an abomination to Egyptians, — 
who, though now numerically increased, had never been 
a nation, nor possessed a territory, nor capital, nor form 
of government, nor laws ! — the Hebrews, who were not 
even free, but who had been born in cruel bondage, 
over whose depressed souls both the government and 
the gods of Egypt had exercised a dreadful fascination, 
making them both slaves and idolaters, yet intoxicating 
them with the licentious orgies of that burning clime, 



THE TABERNACLE. 109 

and brutifying them by the abundance of sensual de- 
lights, the memory of which only the death of a genera- 
lion could extinguish ! How great the difficulty to over- 
come the vis mertice of the Hebrew mind, mould tliem 
into form, and qualify them for the spiritual birthright 
among the nations ! It was indeed difficult to unclench 
the grasp of despotism ; it was more difficult to unclench 
the grasp of ignorance. It was all but impossible to 
make Egypt give them up ; it was quite impossible by 
ordinary human means to make anything of them after 
they were given up. To dash Egypt from the summit 
of power, and doom her to become the basest of nations, 
was a superhuman undertaking ; but it was light com- 
pared with exalting Hebrew refugees to national intel- 
ligence, spirituality, and moral supremacy. 

By what means was this to be effected ? Evidently 
not by moral suasion. Egypt was not to be revolu- 
tionized by argument. Public opinion did not exist. 
There were no means extant for forming public opinion. 
The only conceivable way was the way by which the 
record says she was made — by the high hand and out- 
stretched arm of God. Where natural means avail not, 
supernatural means become natural, because necessary. 
By merely natural means the Hebrews could not be 
moulded after being rescued. There was to their minds 
something really divine and awful in the deities of 
Egypt they bad learned to adore. We can feel the 
penumbra of that eclipse as we stand in the shadow of 
those tremendous fanes after ages of desolation. They 
could not be reasoned out of their superstitious awe; 
mere words would be wasted on them. They must see 
something more awful, more sublime, — something both 
impressive and pure, both terrible and good, transcend- 
ing all Egypt could boast, yet sincere and true in every 
line and lineament. 



Il 170 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

Therefore God brought them into a temple his own 
I hands had piled from creation's dawn ; he stationed 

' them before Horeb's front, even in its own naked maj- 

esty more grand than the pyramids, and on that mount 
the Lord descended in fire and darkness, with angelic 
myriads ; and as they gazed, all Egypt's grandeurs faded 
and grew pale. In the presence of real truth, purity, 
benevolence, accompanied with a few manifestations of 
divine intensity of life and power, the counterfeits of 
Egy]3t stood detected, never again permanently to assert 
I their enslaving power. 

It is astonishing that such reluctance should be felt 
to admit the idea of supernatural intervention. What 
is natural ? The natural order of things is God's cus- 
tomary exercise of power. The laws of nature are the 
habits of God ; miracles are his occasional volitions. 
We have somewhere read of a cathedral clock so con- 
structed as to strike the hours and also to chime the 
centuries, having one bell which rang out once in a 
hundred years. Now suppose a gray-headed peasant 
has heard that clock strike the hours all his life, — now 
arrives the day when that heavy centennial bell tolls 
out. The old man cries, "A miracle ! " That clock he 
has heard since he was a boy. The existence of the 
century-bell has been forgotten ; no man living ever 
heard it before ; yet it is the same weight which impels 
the complex train of wheels ringing familiarly the hours^ 
half-hours, quarter-hours, day and night, and which star- 
tles a generation once a hundred years by an unheard-of 
prodigy. So it is the same divine power moving the 
intricate wheels of the vast benevolent plan, familiarly 
unfolding itself in the growing grass or blooming rose, 
and occasionally manifested in the sublimities of Horeb, 
or in the mighty works of Him who bore our sicknesses 
and carried our diseases. 



THE TABERNACLE. 171 

The only question is, whether the design was a good 
one — worthy of such an outhiy of occasional force. 
Look, then, for a moment at the accomplished result. 
Behold Israel when at length nationally organized and 
complete. The law has been read to the people with 
the customary emblems of a covenant ; for though Jeho- 
vah might reign arbitrarily, without the consent of the 
governed, it is not his method or wish so to do. The 
constitution was submitted to the people, and they an- 
swered, " All that the Lord hath said will we do, and 
be obedient." Hence that law was usually called the 
covenant, and Israel the covenant people. Suppose this 
transaction past, the tabernacle built, the priests conse- 
crated, the ritual established, and the nation on their 
march to the promised land. 

We behold an immense square encampment, the twelve 
tribes, three on a side, each under its own banner. In 
the middle of the encampment there is a court, with 
cherubim embroidered on hangings at the east end, the 
entrance.- Within that court there is a large tent, or tab- 
ernacle. Within that tabernacle there is a holy place, 
and within or behind that, a holy of holies. In that holy 
of holies is the ark with its golden cover, overshadowed 
by the golden cherubim. That cover is the mercy-seat, 
or throne of Him who dwelleth between the cherubim. 
Within that ark is the law of love, the golden rule. The 
nation, at once an army, a school, a state, and a church, 
is completely organized. And what is the central idea ? 
Is it of a supreme executive reigning by absolute, arbi- 
trary power, or is it of a supreme executive reigning 
by law, — an authority founded on essential truth and 
benevolence. Himself the impersonation of the law he 
enjoins ? To ask the question is to answer it. The use 
of the ceremonial system was to bring the nation into 
such attitudes of penitence and faith that the Lord could 
consistently dwell among them. 



172 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

Apply now the principle of interpretation in which 
all spiritualists agree. Moses was indeed a seer, a me- 
dium. He received communications from the spirit- 
world. Those communications, and the spirits bringing 
them, are to be judged by the principles of our rational 
and moral nature. Will not this law stand the test? 
Christ also is admitted by spiritualists to have been a 
seer. He condensed the whole Mosaic legislation into 
supreme love to God and impartial love to man. Is not 
that intuitively seen to be right, and is it not felt to be 
the necessary law of happy society in all worlds ? Can 
spiritualists, then, consistently with their own principles, 
impute deception either to the medium or to the spirits 
communicating ? And will they not joyfully accept the 
conviction these oracles are indeed from a high and pure 
source ? There was here a real opening out of the high- 
est spiritual sphere. That law was given and that na- 
tion was organized substantially as stated. It was one 
elaborate, complex, sublime spieitual manifestation. 
And as the communications in the most solemn manner 
claimed to be from the Lord, we have every reason to 
receive them reverently as such, and to study the sys- 
tem there elaborated in all its details, and trace it in its 
bearings upon the history of the world. We shall be 
richly repaid. It is replete with ingenuity and artistic 
invention ; it is characterized by plain, practical com- 
mon sense in its adaptations to every-day life ; yet it is 
full of analogies, tableaus, types. In this respect it is 
like the material system, and bears the stamp of the 
same contriving mind. It was a system that for fifteen 
centuries stood the shock of battle, and the nation it 
moulded, although long scattered and broken, has lived 
to see every empire matched against them go down ; 
and it may yet live to repossess its ancient land, and 
play an important part in millennial history. 



BALAAM. 173 



CHAPTER XX. 

BALAAM. 

WE have seen the Egyptian magicians and diviners. 
We now meet with those of Aram, from the 
East. As nations diverged from the ark, our theory is 
that they built temples commemorative of Eden and its 
tabernacle, and for a time, doubtless, received responses 
from the Lord. As they grew more and more selfish 
and corrupt, they more and more repelled the highest 
order of spirits from communicating, while other spirits 
drew nigh and gave responses, still pretending, how- 
ever, to speak with divine authority. This was what 
rendered it so difficult to distinguish the true prophet 
from the false. ' The psychologic conditions were the 
same. The ethnic ritual was in fact derived from a 
primitive divine source, and claimed divine sanction, 
as the original revelation. The spirits communicating 
could personate deity, — and thus the deceptive power 
was very great. The truth was, however^ that the 
diviners, as a class, had become very corrupt. This all 
spiritualists admit, and it is abundantly manifest from 
the magical formulas, charms, incantations, and impre- 
cations found on the recently discovered clay tablets of 
Assyria. They had reached such a stage of degeneracy 
that the divine Spirit could no longer use them for his 
communications. Hence, as Israel draws nigh Canaan, 
a most interesting contrast of the two styles of oracular 
manifestation is brought to view.* Balak sends an em- 

* Num. xxii., xxiii.. xxiv. 



174 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

bassy to Balaam — " with, the rewards of divination in 
their hands " — with the invitation, " Come, curse me 
this people ! For I know that he whom thou blessest 
is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed." Ba- 
laam replied, " Lodge here this night, and I will bring 
you word again, as the Lord shall speak unto me." 
Balaam intended to seek a response in the usual manner. 
Such responses had originally come from the true God. 
They were still considered to do so. And had Balaam 
been pure in heart, he might still have received the di- 
vine spirit. 

In such a crisis it was proper that the Lord should 
interfere, and discriminate against the oracles he was 
discarding for their corruption, and in favor of that he 
was reinstituting. Hence Balaam receives a communi- 
cation from God, — " Thou shalt not go with them ; thou 
shalt not curse them, for they are blessed." A second 
embassy is sent still more honorable, with promises of 
greater rewards. Balaam replies : " If Balak would 
give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go be- 
yond the word of the Lord." In this Balaam spoke the 
truth. He believed in the reality of his own converse 
with the Unseen. Yet he may have secretly wished to 
go. He may have hoped the spirits would let him 
go. At any rate, there was something in his state of 
mind offensive to the Spirit of God ; for although he 
permitted him to go, he stood in the way with a drawn 
sword to slay him. And the ass saw what the man, al- 
though a seer, failed at first to see. It is well known 
that animals are sometimes clairvoyant, and strangely 
affected by the presence of forms invisible to mortals. 
Nor will it seem to spiritualists incredible that one of 
the brute species should even be made for a moment an 
instrument of spirit control, and seem to speak in human 
accents. Something corrupt there must have been in 



BALAAM. li,j 

the seer's motives, since the Lord distinctl}^ told him, 
" Thy way is perverse before me." It must be that Ba- 
laam's heart was set on gaining those rewards, if he 
could in any way procure a response from unseen sources 
j)ermitting him to do what Balak wanted. Does it not 
suggest that he had done such things as that? That he 
had at times procured responses such as he wanted — or 
slightly changed, or added to or taken from them, so as 
to suit his selfish purposes ? 

He submits in a moment. "I have sinned 

Now if it displease thee, I will get me back again." " Go 
with the men," is the reply, " but only the word that I 
shall speak unto thee that shalt thou speak." As if he 
had been meditating how to speak something else. 
Hence on arrival, when Balak reproaches him for not 
coming sooner, saying, " Am I not able indeed to pro- 
mote thee to honor ? " he replies, " Have I now any 
power at all to say anything? The word that God put- 
teth in my mouth that shall I speak." 

On the morrow Balak brought him " into the high 
places of Baal." It is the first mention of a deity, or 
deities, destined to be so antagonistic to Israel's life. 
" Build me here seven altars, and prepare me seven 
oxen and seven rams," said the seer. It was to be a 
solemn religious invocation. It was a summoning of all 
that was most earnest, most venerable, most conscientious, 
to resist and destroy that which was conceived to be dan- 
gerous and destructive to the best interests of society. 
" And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king 
of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the moun- 
tains of the east, saying. Come, curse me Jacob ; and 
come, defy Israel. How shall I curse, whom God hath 
not cursed ? or how shall I defy, whom the Lord hath 
not defied ? For from the top of the rocks I see him, 
and from the hills I behold him : lo, the people shall 



176 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the na- 
tions. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the num- 
ber of the fourth part of Israel ? let me die the death of 
the righteous, and let my last end be like his ! " In this 
response, the idea of national isolation is prominent. 
It is a disclosure by the divine Spirit, of a great moral 
strategic principle to which we have already referred, — 
the occupation of a strong central position, its fortifica- 
tion, and defence, against great odds, through a long 
campaign, or series of campaigns. 

After a renewal of sacrifices, another attempt is made 
vrith like result. " Stand by thy burnt-offering," says 
the Aramasan seer, " and I will go ; peradventure the 
Lord will come to meet me." He Avent, " as at other 
times, to seek enchantments." That is, he went to 
throw himself into that peculiar psychologic state in 
which he usually obtained communications. " And he 
took up his parable, and said. Rise up, Balak, and 
hear ; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor : God is 
not a man, that he should lie ; neither the son of man, 
that he should repent; hath he said, and shall he not do 
it ? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good ? 
Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and be 
hath blessed ; and I cannot reverse it. He hath not be- 
held iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverse- 
ness in Israel : the Lord his God is with him, and the 
shout of a king is among them. God brought them out 
of Egypt ; he hath as it were the strength of a unicorn. 
Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is 
there any divination against Israel : according to this 
time it shall be said of Japob and of Israel, What hath 
God wrought ! Behold, the people shall rise up as a 
great lion, and lift up himself as a j^oung lion ; he shall 
not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the 
blood of the slain." Here prominence is given to the 



BALAAM. 177 

idea that the Lord is dwelling in Israel as a king ; that 
there is the true Oracle from which reliable responses 
can be obtained ; (as contrasted with deceptive " divi- 
nations" of other lands;) and intimations are given of 
an ultimate offensive policy in the moral war. 

A third attempt is made. Though Balaam sincerely 
believed the responses to be from God, one cannot resist 
the impression that he had often found " the Elohim " 
more complaisant. By varying the " conditions," he had 
been able to obtain more acceptable responses. This 
mixture of full belief in the reality and divinity of the 
responses, with latent elements of finesse and subtilty, 
may be strange, but it is, unhappily, too often witnessed 
in our own day. But finding no symptoms of compli- 
ance, he yields, and goes straight forward to his work. 

" And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord 
to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek 
for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilder- 
ness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel 
abiding in his tents according to their tribes ; and the 
Spirit of God came upon him. And he took up his 
parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, 
and the man whose eyes are open hath said ; he hath 
said, which heard the words of God, which saw the 
vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having 
his eyes open : How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob ! 
and thy tabernacles, O Israel ! As the valleys are they 
spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as the 
trees of lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted, and 
as cedar-trees beside the waters. He shall pour the 
water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many 
waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his 
kingdom shall be exalted. God brought him forth out 
of Egypt ; he hath as it were the strength of a unicorn : 
he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break 
12 



178 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. 
He couched, he lay down as a Hon, and as a great li(^n : 
who shall stir him up ? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, 
and cursed is he that curseth thee." 

He is struck by the beauty of the spectacle, as he sees 
the distant encampment, with its majestic pillar of fire 
and cloud. A revelation is made to his spirit of that 
beauty which the divine Eye sees in that spectacle ; and 
which our eyes, instructed by the Spirit, can see as we 
look back through the ages. It is another Eden taber- 
'nacle ! Another Garden of Eden, with its living waters, 
and trees of healing, planted by the Lord ! It is the 
primitive Eden ritual rescued from profanation, and re- 
instituted with added elements suited to the emergencies 
of the age. There is also another strong intimation of a 
final offensive in the moral war. No further attempt 
was now made to procure the desired responses ; but 
before his departure the seer unfolds to Balak a vision 
of the future. " And he took up his parable, and 
said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man 
whose eyes are open hath said : he hath said, which 
heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of 
the Most High, which saw-the vision of the Almighty, 
falling into a trance, but having his e3''es open : I shall 
see him, but not now : I shall behold him, but not nigh: 
there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall 
rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, 
and destroy all the children of Sheth. And Edom 
shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for 
his enemies : and Israel shall do valiantly. Out of 
Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall 
destroy him that remaineth of the city. And when he 
looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, 
Amalek was the first of the nations ; but his latter end 
shall be that he perish forever. And he looked on the 



BALAAM. 179 

Kenites, and took up bis parable, and said, Strong is 
tby dwelling-place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock. 
Nevertheless, the Kenite shall be wasted, until Asshur 
shall carry thee away captive. And he took up his par- 
able, and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this ! 
And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and 
shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also 
shall perish forever." 

This prophecj'' of the Star out of Jacob and a Sceptre 
out of Israel, we can conceive to have had a profound 
effect on the Oriental imagination. We hear its echo at 
a later day in the inquiry of the magi : "• Where is he 
that is born King of the Jews ? for we have seen his 
star in the east, and are come to worship him." Would 
that all the magi, of all the ages, East and West, would 
show the same believing, tender, loving, loyal spirit ! 

There is more instruction in this brief history of Balak 
and Balaam, touching the philosophy and physiology of 
spiritual manifestations, than in many a pretentious 
treatise of modern times. Balaam was really a remark- 
able man ; his closing predictions (which we do not at- 
tempt to discuss) extend to times later even than the 
present; and there are in all his utterances, traces of 
original elevation of spirit. Yet there was that mingling 
of good and evil, of truthfulness and sinuosity, of no- 
bility with sordidness, which is the saddest, as it is the 
most mysterious and perplexing problem of history. 
Only Omniscience can fully solve that problem. 



180 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

CANAAN. 

THE hypothesis we are considering implies that the 
material system is pure and purifying ; and that to 
grow up healthily in a healthy body, regulating the 
natural appetites, and fulfilling the natural relations of 
the family and of society, in a healthful way, involves 
such a golden-rule training as goes far towards the cure 
of innate selfish habits, especially when complemented by 
the secret monitions of the Spirit, the emblematic rites 
of religion, and the direct oracles of God from the mercy- 
seat. 

What, then, would be the attitude of the cosmocracy 
towards such a system ? This is undoubtedly a difficult 
problem to solve completely ; and the utmost we dare 
attempt is to find some way of thinking it through con- 
veniently. The solution is in brief this: they would 
assail the system, not directly, but indirectly. Suppos- 
ing two great political parties to exist in the empyreal 
realms, both would attempt to use this material system 
according to their respective views, and make political 
capital out of it. And supposing the human race exiled 
in disgrace from their native celestial seats, the great 
parties on high may differ as to the manner of governing 
them ; somewhat as in our own case parties may differ 
as to the proper mode of governing the freedmen. 

Yet, if it be supposed that man had been nominated 
to the succession in office, and in some way defeated and 
driven into exile in disgrace, it is easy to conceive there. 



CANAAN. 181 

might be a certain element of jealousy lurking in the 
mind of prominent leaders, somewhat as an element of 
resentful jealousy might animate a great national party 
towards the freedmen, whom they had driven from 
short-lived political ascendency. We are conditioned, 
then, by our hypothesis, to conceive of the course pur- 
sued by the cosmocracy, not as a conscious, overt 
" drawing off " or "rebellion," or "unfurling the ban- 
ner" of "treason" or "revolt," but rather as a course 
strenuously defended by partisan rhetoric, on grounds 
of a specious but unsound political morality, the badness 
of which could only become adequately manifest by a 
long course of development ; — that the credit of what- 
ever was good in the successive world-empires was 
claimed by both the great political parties, and the re- 
sponsibility for what was bad thrown upon their antag- 
onists, or upon man himself, — which was an indirect way 
of throwing it upon the party of whom man was, as it 
were, client and protegee. It is conceivable that the 
cosmocracy should try to keep men in order by severity, 
— by intimidation ; and finding it no easy matter, should 
be led to increase severity to cruelty ; and enhance in- 
timidation by appeal to threats of future torment, and 
by various superstitious terrors, — as all ancient remains 
show, and as all spiritualists admit they did in fact do. 
And it is conceivable that when nations became grossly 
corrupt, the cosmocracy should be implacable towards 
them by exaggerating every fault. Thus the dragon- 
power is represented as accusing man before God night 
and da}^ ; — while, on the other hand, we can conceive 
of man's Mediator and Advocate as pleading their cause, 
and arguing that the remedial system was not properly 
applied, and that, blameworthy as men might be, the 
responsibility was very largely with the hostile princi- 
palities. 



182 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

These reflections have been occasioned by expressions 
of surprise in certain quarters, that any one could im- 
agine such developments as those in Sodom, or those in 
the seven nations of Canaan, or other degraded nations, 
could have occurred under the auspices of high celestial 
principalities, and those principalities still maintain their 
hold of power, and not be instantly hurled down. 

Our conception is, that the problem of government is 
essentially one in all its main elements in all worlds, 
and all grades of being ; in this nation before our eyes, 
and in the highest empyrean ; in this age and in all the 
ages of the past. 

It is as easy to account for the genesis of polytheism, 
on this hypothesis, as to account for the questions now 
agitating this nation in view of the principles of Chris- 
tianity, and of the Declaration of Independence. What 
that genesis was, we have partly shown. Polytheism 
was a wonderful system of mingling elements: simple 
at first, gradually corrupted ; protean, deceptive, awe- 
inspiring, cruel ; yet seductive, alluring, licentious ; yet 
claiming divine origin, and wielding the fearful sanctions 
of eternal retribution. Such the system of the seven 
nations of Canaan had actually become. How, by the 
hypothesis, would this development be met on the 
earth-plane? What would be the next move on the 
political chessboard? What the next stroke of moral 
strategy ? Being thrown for the time on the defensive, 
the Mediatorial economy might contract its lines, and 
concentrate on some quadrilateral. The policy would 
naturally be to reinstitute the original Eden system on a 
healthy basis, and prohibit all degenerate systems. Nay, 
having so done, and trained a single nation to physical 
hardihood, and prowess, the Lord might commission 
them as high-sheriff of the nations, to execute capital 
sentence on some community where the corrupted 



CANAAN. 183 

scheme had worked itself out to its ripest fruits. This 
would be not merely allowable, but almost inevitable, 
unless the beneficent, all-embracing plan was to be 
abandoned. 

This, then, is in fact the course that we conceive was 
taken. The whole Levitical system is adapted with 
divine ingenuity to incarnate sound minds in sound 
bodies, with pure family relations, tribe relations, and 
national relations, in a healthful country and clime, 
with healthful avocations, and a ritual wonderfull}' in- 
structive by its facts and its analogies ; and above all, 
an Oracle for direct responses from the Living God. 

At the same time, the Author of the system, — not 
Moses, for surely no man educated as he had been would 
have done such a thing if left to himself, — the spirit- 
Author of the system, deliberately and intentionally 
eschewed all post-mortem terrors. They had been so 
misused, so abused, and had proved so inadequate, that 
it was probably deemed inexpedient to rely upon them. 
At all events, they were practically ignored. The ap- 
peal was in fact made to temporal rewards and punish- 
ments. And yet, by promise and covenant, and type 
and emblem, the grand ideas of a future resurrection 
and redemption were preserved. He " kept the way of 
the tree of life." 

And there on the hills of Canaan, the seven nations 
had gone on since the days of Sodom, four hundred 
years, more or less, filling up the cup of iniquity. They 
were fearfully corrupt in the days of Abraham. What 
must they have become in four centuries of debasement ! 
Let us beware, in the abounding liberality of our happy 
ignorance, that we do not apologize for what we do not 
understand, and that of which we must blush to think 
humanity ever could have been guilty. Look, then, at 
the statute ; — " When thou art come into the land which 



184 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do 
after the abominations of those nations. There shall 
not be found among you any one that maketh his son or 
his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divi- 
nation, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a 
witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, 
or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these 
things are an abomination unto the Lord, and because of 
these abominations the Lord thy Grod doth drive them out 
before thee.'''* "Thou shalt not let any of thy seed 
pass through the fire to Moloch, neither shalt thou pro- 
fane the name of thy God. I am Jehovah. Thou shalt 
not lie with mankind as with womankind : it is abomina- 
tion. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile 
thyself therewith : neither shall any woman stand before 
any beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. Defile not 
ye yourselves in any of these things : for in all these the 
nations are defiled which I cast out before j^ou : and the 
land is defiled : therefore I do visit the iniquity of the 
land upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her in- 
habitants." t 

Now, Israel is taken in band,, moulded, formed, a 
church, a state, a school, a camp, — the army of the 
Lord. Israel is led forty years through the desert. A 
whole generation, effeminate by birth and breeding on 
the Nile, drop off, and the new generation are inured to 
toil. They are healthy. They are sons of the desert. 
Thej are disciplined. They are veterans — ironsides. 
God gathers them in his hand and hurls them with 
crushing impetus upon that Moloch-worshipping mass. 
Such is the counter-move on the mighty chessboard; 
such the strategy of the offensive-defensive moral cam- 
paign. The position he designs to fortify, — the key of 
three continents, — to inherit which is to be heir of the 
* Deut. xviii. 9-12. f Lev. xviii. 21-25. 



CANAAN. l8o 

world, must first be carried by storm, — purged with 
fire and sword, and fortified under intense moral antag- 
onism against all the loathsome abominations of the 
hostile powers. For loathsome as they are to God, they 
were, alas ! but too alluring to the Egypt-born genera- 
tion, as they showed by their licentious orgies even at 
the foot of Horeb, and in the march, and in repeated 
instances from generation to generation. They must be 
taught to fight against a system that would otherwise 
entice, allure, corrupt, and destroy them. They are 
espoused to Jehovah. He is their husband. To yield to 
the blandishments of the daughters of Midian, the seers 
and priestesses of Baal ; to eat the sacrifices of the dead ; 
even to " seek " unto, " inquire " of, or " consult " those 
necromantic oracles, was a spiritual unchastity ; — and 
"I the Lord thy God am a Jealous God." It was, it 
must be, high treason, — a capital offence, — a crime 
against their whole law, against their own bodies, the 
family, the state, the oracle, — against God himself en- 
throned between the cherubim. " Whosoever he be of 
the children of Israel that giveth any of his seed unto 
Moloch shall surely be put to death ; and the soul that 
turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after 
wizards to go a whoring after them, I will even set my 
face against that soul, and will cut him off from among 
his people." * 

And if it be said that Israel was in fact infected, if 
she apostatized about once in every generation, if for a 
thousand years until the return from Babylon the Lord 
seemed fighting a losing battle, — every moment pure 
religion seeming on the point of being swept from the 
face of the earth, — we see that at last the defence won 
the game ; and we see that nothing but such a destruc- 
tive onset and such an intense antagonism could have 

* Lev. XX. 2. 



186 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

done it. The moral momentum of that aggressive move- 
ment under Joshua was never entirely lost. It is not 
lost even now, for Israel has yet a part to play on the 
chessboard of nations. And this view, it is important 
to observe, flows naturally and consistently from those 
principles in which all spiritualists agree. Indeed, it 
would be easy to adduce quotations from leading spirit- 
ualists of every school, substantially necessitating these 
results. And we have carefully endeavored to keep 
within the limits warranted by the universally conceded 
premises of the movement. 



THE JUDGES. 187 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE JUDGES. 

THE period from Joshua to David is peculiar. The 
divine impulse was apparently suspended ; catas- 
trophism was reduced to a minimum ; gradualism set 
in ; the forces of environment came into play. " So is 
the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into 
the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, 
and the seed should spring up and grow he knoweth 
not how."* Would the good seed grow in the newly- 
ploughed field, or would the weeds, whose rootlets filled 
the soil^eat it out? The vine was planted in the vine- 
yard in a fruitful hill : would it bear grapes, or wild 
grapes, or even grapes of Sodom ? It was a small coun- 
try. Would this divine republic rise to the primacy of 
nations, or relapse to barbarism, being broken up into 
small fragments — neighborhoods, families, tribes, fac- 
tions, in districts, nooks, and corners ? Entering into 
a rich land, receiving houses they built not, wells they 
digged not, acquiring sudden wealth, would the 3'oung 
saint ( Jeshurun) " wax fat and kick ? " f Sparing a 
remnant here, contrary to divine command, and a rem- 
nant there, of the Canaanites, with the Philistine on the 
coast, and Moab, Ammon, and Midian on the east, would 
the antipathy God had cultivated yield to infection ? 

The problem is complex. The history is fragment- 
ary ; — a raid here, a foray there, a border war, a guer- 
rilla campaign, sometimes in one district, sometimes in 

* Mark iv. 26-29. t 'Deut. xxxii. 15. 



188 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

another, — almost never the nation in whole, always in 
parts, — samples, as it were. As in our own newly- 
settled states one may find families of refinement and 
families of semi-barbarism within a stone's throw, so 
there might be idyls of Ruth and Hannah within a 
stone's throw of massacres of Benjamin and raids of 
Dan. 

If souls in fact came pure into life, — if each gen- 
eration was a generation either of prim Puritan or 
of placid Quaker, — if each generation brought with ifc 
latent habits of self-restraint and virtue, — the problem 
would be simpler ; there might be a gradual rise, a 
gradual amelioration. But little flasks of nitro-glyce- 
rih, explosive, evasive ; animated globules of mercury ; 
a shower of silver shot ; — what then ? Spirits subtle, 
proud, wilful, swift, with coiled-up habits of self-will, 
like watch-springs ; how then ? Every fresh genera- 
tion would witness a fresh complication; — here a flash, 
there an explosion ; here an anomaly, there a neglect or 
total upsetting of the ritual ; here a compromise, there 
a transient penitence, a catastrophic reformation. Every 
generation would witness a declension. It is what we 
actually see. The profoundest problem of moral gov- 
ernment is to know good and evil ; to bring good out 
of evil ; to organize a good system with partially evil 
materials ; to use selfish men for benevolent ends, — 
yet never compromise principle nor sanction sin. It 
requires a discrimination of which only Omniscience is 
capable. 

Look at it in our own affairs. How can a great party 
act together without concert ? and how can the honest 
men of a party act with the dishonest, without con- 
niving at dishonesty ? God knows, but we do not ; and 
it will be some time before we find out. But, on the 
hypothesis we are considering, it was the only problem 



THE JUDGES. 189 

left to Benevolence to try. He must either wipe out as 
with a wet sponge all selfish orders, or he must organize 
a world where benevolent results should be aimed at, 
with selfish material. By the hypothesis, the body, fam- 
ily, and social state, materially considered, are pure and 
purifying. By the hypothesis, the divine republic is 
hurled crushingly upon the corrupt seven nations. The 
new system is there ; it is lodged in its mountain fast- 
nesses, in its vale of Esdraelon, and in a thousand glens 
and wild caves. It is there ; it cannot be dislodged. It 
must undergo the ordeal of attack from without, and of 
development from within. Each Israelite is not a nicely 
turned and sandpapered little chessman — a pawn or a 
knight ; — alas, he happens to have moral gunpowder 
inside of him. His heart is tinder, and sparks are fly- 
ing. Of course polytheism is repulsive; — he ought to 
feel antipathy to the filleted priestesses of Venus As- 
tarte, but he is too easily mollified. Clusters of Sodom 
ought not to grow on such a vine ; but while Christen- 
dom makes the amorous songs of Corydon and Alexis 
a classic in every college, Christendom ought not to 
wonder that obscure localities in Israel should witness 
shocking developments of passion.* 

Now what we in fact see in the era between Joshua 
and David is the nation fairly lodged, clinging tena- 
ciousl}^ to its hold, — often overrun, often reduced to 
extremity, at times even hiding in caves and glens, des- 
titute of sword or spear, and dependent on the Philis- 
tine even to sharpen plough or mattock ; yet surviving, 
with a tolerably healthy physique, and certain habits of 
language, and family life, and religion, and national feel- 
ing. But the system itself, as embodied in the taber- 
nacle, is sadly dilapidated and needing reinstitution, — 
the tabernacle in one place, the ark in another, the She- 

* Like those, for example, recorded in Judges xix., xx., and xxi. 



190 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIOISfS. 

kinah glory nowhere ; the divine housekeeping at Shiloh 
interrupted ; Jehovah on the cherubic throne as king 
rejected ; a mortal monarchy inaugurated ; a half-dozen 
imitation tabernacles or houses of God, one at Laish or 
Dan, one at Mizpeh, one at Nob near Jebusi, and the old 
tabernacle at Shiloh ; the ship a seeming wreck ; gov- 
ernment and worship reverting to first principles ; patri- 
archal altars, patriarchal sacrifices, patriarchal prophets, 
and schools of prophets, seers, second sight, and all the 
phenomena of clairvoyance, under the auspices of Sam- 
uel, the prophet of Jehovah ; and, lurking in private 
families and out-of-the-way resorts, occult practices of 
incantation, divination, consultation of familiar spirits, 
and necromancy generally. 

The causes of this apparent shipwreck (though David 
got the ship off the breakers) were simple. The un- 
subdued remnants of the seven nations multiplied and 
regained strength ; the old generation of desert-born 
warriors died off. The new generation came on the 
stage — as the first generation born in New England 
did ^— with no taste for the rigid antagonism of their 
fathers. Thej^" thought the garlanded priestesses charm- 
ing ; they visited the groves and the festivals ; they in- 
termarried ; they were ensnared. Of course the priests 
of the groves had specious arguments, and could prove 
that theirs was the original Eden system, the very same 
that came out of the ark ; their gods Baal and Astarte 
the very same substantially that their ancestors, the fam- 
ily of Abraham, worshipped beyond the Euphrates, in 
Mesopotamia ; and Israel's system was nothing but an 
innovation. So they yielded, and were punished by cap- 
tivity, and repented, and were forgiven ; and yielded 
again, and were enslaved ; repented, and were forgiven, 
about once every generation. 

The result was, a temporary failure to establish a vir- 



THE JUDGES. 191 

tual republic under the law (summed up by Christ as 
the golden rule) as constitution and the Shekinah oracle 
for supreme court and executive. Feeling the evils of 
anarchy, and deficient in faith in the Lord's power to 
unite them, the people ask a king. Their request is 
granted, though with reluctance and a vivid delineation 
of what the character of the monarchy would be. 

Meanwhile Saul is crowned. The usual development- 
of ambition follows. Saul usurps the prophetic pre- 
rogative, equivalent, as things were, to the judicial and 
sacerdotal functions ; he forfeits the crown ; a successor 
is anointed ; then follows an instructive story of jeal- 
ousy, persecution, delirium, necromancy, defeat, suicide. 
Of course, as the principles of misgoyernment are and 
must be essentially the same in all worlds, visible and 
invisible, it is supposable that in the story of Saul there 
may be shadowed out a dim reflection of higher reali- 
ties when the celestial principalities found themselves 
threatened with loss of power by the anointing of man ; 
also that in- the story of David there may be a certain 
similarity to that of the Anointed, which is commonly ex- 
pressed by saying that David was a type of Christ. Pre- 
cisely here, then, at this juncture so appropriate, there 
bursts forth a development unparalleled in the ages — 
the Psalms. To say they have never been equalled is 
to say but little. They have never been approached ; 
there is nothing like them in human literature. The 
secret of this is found in that analogy of which we have 
spoken. There is a profound significance in them ; and 
as we are in fact exiles from our celestial fatherland, 
the vibrations of those harp-strings thrill so deeply in 
our souls that we can at times hardly bear the exquisite 
pain or pleasure of the touch. We weep when we re- 
member Zion. 



192 SPIKITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

" They come as half-forgotten dreams 
Trom that eternal land ; 
The sound of its celestial streams 
And shores of silver sand ! " 

Is it possible we can be so oblivious as to remain in- 
sensible ? Deeply are we buried indeed, if such be the 
case. Or can we be interested chiefly by the mechan- 
ism of the manifestation, the psychologic or physiologic 
phenomena, and ignore the grandeur of the ideas and 
emotions expressed, the sweetness and awfulness of the 
revelation of love divine, love absolute, unconditioned, 
eternal ? The greatness of the manifestation at Ho- 
reb was not in the flaming summit, nor in the thunder, 
nor in all the material phenomena, august as they were ; 
but in the revelation of the spirit of love, as the essen- 
tial law of God's being and government. So the great- 
ness of the manifestation in the Davidic era was in 
the still richer revelation of that love, in relation not 
merely to all governmental needs, but to the myriad and 
manifold needs of sinful, sorrowful, struggling hearts, 
yearning for their native clime, or suffering under the 
oppression, the contumely of proud and scornful foes, 
not merely in the visible world, but in realms unseen. 

How can we think it is mere matter that defiles and 
distresses us 1 How can we think that to put off the 
last particle or trace of matter, and be absorbed into the 
immaterial light, is what we sigh for ! It is not matter 
that pains us : it is selfishness ; it is pride ; it is that 
palsy of the spirit that makes us feel with acute pain 
that we are not like Jesus, and that we cannot endure 
the crucifixion we need. That, and not matter, whether 
gross or refined, is what distresses us. This makes us 
cry out : " As the hart panteth after the water brooks, 
so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirst- 
eth for God, for the living God : when shall I come and 



THE JUDGES. 193 

appear before God ? My tears have been my meat day 
and night, while they continually say unto me, Where 
is thy God ? " This makes us exclaim : " O God, thou 
art my God ; early will I seek thee : my soul thirsteth 
for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty 
land, where no water is ; to see thy power and thy 
glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Because 
thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall 
praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live : I will 
lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satis- 
fied as with marrow and fatness ; and my mouth shall 
praise thee with joyful lips ; when I remember thee 
upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night- 
watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore 
in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul fol- 
io weth hard after thee : thy right hand uphold eth me." 
More and more, as we study the actual manifesta- 
tions of the Spirit in all ages, at the gates of Eden, on 
Iloreb, or in the Psalms of David, we shall perceive the 
great truth bodying itself forth in various forms, that 
the health both of nations and of single hearts, both 
on earth and in the very highest heaven, is in loving 
divinely and being divinely beloved ; and as this dawns 
upon us, the language of our restful heart will be, " As 
for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness : I shall 
be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." " Thou 
wilt show me the path of life : in thy presence is ful- 
ness of joy ; at thy right hand there are pleasures for 
evermore." 

13 



194 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

SOLOMON. 

THE temple of Solomon, like the tabernacle in the 
wilderness, was a reproduction, in more durable 
form, of the original Eden tabernacle. As in Genesis 
we read, " He tabernacled the cherubim on the east of 
Eden ; " and as at Horeb we might epitomize the Mosaic 
legislation by saying, " he tabernacled the cherubim anew, 
with additional ritual observances ; " so here, we may 
comprehend Solomon's work by saying, he tabernacled 
the cherubim a third time, on Mount Moriah, in a temple 
whose foundation-courses were built for all time. . As 
Moses took what Egypt had kept of primeval records, 
so Solomon now took what Tyre had preserved of prime- 
val mathematics and geometry and architecture, — what- 
ever Egypt, or Chaldea, or any other nation far or near, 
knew of art, of embroidery, of brilliant dyes, of carving, 
moulding, and gilding, — and brought them to a focus 
in the temple. It was one and the same original system, 
with such variation of detail, and expansion of scope, as 
befitted the time, and stage of development of the divine 
benevolent plan. 

But while the principle of isolation was by no means 
abandoned ; while the system was being impregnably 
fortified, for a moral defensive of a thousand years, — 
there were adaptations in it to ultimate expansion and 
catholicity. The relation of the system to other nations 
is distinctly indicated, and the educational primacy of 



SOLOMON. 195 

the Israelite people reasserted. The Temple was a Na- 
tional Oracle for times then present, where responses 
might be sought and obtained from Him that dwelt be- 
tween the cherubim ; but it was also to be a house of 
praj^er for all nations. 

In the dedicatory prayer we find the clearest recogni- 
tion of this, together with the most solemn sense of the 
divine omnipresence and spirituality. " But will God 
in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, 
heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee ; 
how much less this house which I have built ! " * It is 
in this prayer that the idea of Heaven as His dwelling- 
place is made so prominent. David had spoken of His 
throne being in the heavens ; of his " bowing his 
heavens ; " but now, " hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling- 
.place," comes in like a sweet refrain, again and again, 
reminding us of Him, a thousand years later, who taught 
us to praj', " Our Father, which art in heaven ! " Now, 
after specifying the devotional uses of this house to 
Israel, at home or abroad, he says : " Moreover, concern- 
ing the stranger (or foreigner) which is not of thy people 
Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great 
name's sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched- 
out arm ; if they come, and pray in this house, then 
hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling- 
place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth 
to thee for, that all nations of the earth may know thy 
name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel." 

Here, then, we have vividly enunciated the divine 
idea of a spiritual primacy among the nations, for their 
good. Israel, an educational nation, a pioneer in re- 
ligious and civil liberty ; a nation formed to individual 
health of body, health and purity of family, health, intel- 
ligence, virtue, and wealth socially, health of mind and 

* 2 Chron. vi. 18. 



196 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

heart, developed by pure worship and vital communion 
with the Living God, and Him only. 

Now, at the close of the prayer, when Solomon said, 
" ' Arise, O Lord God, into thy resting-place, thou and 
the ark of thy strength,' the fire came down from heaven, 
and consumed the burnt-offering and the sacrifices ; and 
the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priests 
could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the 
glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house." 

Thus the Lord was at home again among his people ; 
on a somewhat modified plan ; He the invisible Sovereign, 
the king his visible representative. His own conception 
of it He thus expressed to Solomon soon after in a dream. 
" For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that 
my name may be there forever, and mine eyes and my 
lieart shall be there perpetually ; . . . . but if ye turn 
away and shall go and serve other gods, then will I pluck 
you up by the roots, and this house, which I have sanc- 
tified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will 
make it a proverb and a by-word among all nations. 
And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment 
to every one that passeth by it, so that he shall say, 
Why hath the Lord done this unto this land and unto 
this people ? and it shall be answered. Because they for- 
sook the Lord God of their fathers which brought them 
out of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, therefore 
hath he brought all this evil upon them." 

It is a favorite idea with many that sin begins in im- 
maturity. It pertains to a low and undeveloped stage 
of being, they think, whether in this visible or in the 
invisible sphere. The idea that sin could commence in 
the highest celestial spheres, among the very wisest, 
brightest, most glorious principalities, seems incredible. 
But have they ever reflected on the possibility of the 
selfishness of benevolence, the pride of humility, the 



SOLOMON. 197 

deceitfulness of sincerity, and the folly of great wisdom ? 
Have they reflected on that truly deepest and most 
awful of problems of Omniscience, the discrimination of 
good and evil ? — the good use of badness, the bad use 
of goodness, — and the almost impossibility of finite 
minds drawing the line ? May not a really benevolent 
mind be so absorbed in carrying out a benevolent plan, 
as unawares to violate mercy, humility, and even sin- 
cerity ? Have they duly considered the nature of pside 
of intellect? The wiser a mind is, and more profound, 
is he not more liable to think truth his, and that some 
incense is due him for thinking God's thoughts after 
him ? And have not even the most humble and contrite 
sometimes detected a self-complacent pride in humility ? 

If Solomon, with all his wisdom and benevolent public 
spirit, and devotion, and humility, — for these breathe un- 
mistakably through his earlier utterances and acts, — and 
in the very focus of such environments designed to pro- 
duce and preserve benevolence, could apostatize, why 
not a wiser than he ? Surely one cannot call Solomon's 
mind low and undeveloped. One must see that sin may 
be the product of the very highest powers and richest 
endowments in the most sacred environments. 

Solomon was public-spirited, and established commer- 
cial relations with remote nations, enriching his people 
and his court, and forming acquaintance with the men 
and manners of other nations. He had a mind capacious 
enough to take in much of their raw material of thought. 
Moreover, as his prayer shows, he knew that Israel was 
to influence the devotions of all nations. It would 
naturally occur to him that if those nations were to be 
benefited by Jewish influences, he " must begin by 
recognizing and accepting the truth they already pos- 
sessed. He must be willing to learn of them in order to 
teach them." It might not occur to him, that in so 



198 SPmiTUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

doing he ran great risk ; that he might ere he was 
aware withdraw his soul from exclusive dependence on 
the Living God, and subject it to teachings from a 
lower sphere, violating the delicate chastity of a spirit 
espoused to God. 

Moreover, in the furtherance of this catholic purpose, 
he might be led to still further multiply his nuptial 
alliances with other courts, thus subjecting himself, to- 
wards the close of a long and splendid reign, to a for- 
midable accumulation of influences. These wives brought 
other charms and enchantments than those of sense. In 
their retinue came hierophants, mystics, seers, and dev- 
otees of every degree. Among them Solomon found 
those who had the traditions of the primitive religion. 
He could converse with them. He could experiment 
with them in all their curious arts. Universal Oriental 
tradition ascribes to him the highest proficiency in the 
magic art. 

It is stated : " And God gave Solomon wisdom and 
understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, 
even as the sand that is on the sea-shore." * This must 
mean many-sidedness, and liberality of thought. It is 
a singular comparison, often used to denote great num- 
bers, but here only to denote wideness and expansive- 
ness of comprehension. " And Solomon's wisdom ex- 
celled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, 
and all the wisdom of Egypt." He knew the esoteric 
mysteries — as we do not and cannot. He knew all that 
we know of Egypt, and a great deal more. He knew 
all that Egyptian priests, and librarians, and hierophants, 
and magicians knew ; and more than they ; for while 
they had been progressing in selfishness, deception, and 
the gradual obscuration of the original Eden Revelation, 
Solomon had it as reformed by Moses, and increased by 

* 1 Kings iv. 29. 



SOLOMON. 199 

direct manifestation of Him who dv/elt between the 
cherubim. Hence the sages of tlie Nile (to whom 
Pythagoras, and Herodotus, and PLito, and other Greek 
philosophers, came as pupils centuries later) found in 
Solomon no pupil but a preceptor, one who knew more 
than they did, unless it be of teachings of their oracles, 
and familiar spirits, prohibited by the Law. " For ho 
was wiser than all men, wiser than Ethan the Ezraliite. 
and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol : and his 
fame was in all nations round about." " For he spake 
of trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon, even 
unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall : he spake 
also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of 
fishes." In modern phrase, he was a student of natural 
history. He composed treatises on these subjects. He 
pursued the inductive method. He observed. He cata- 
logued. He recorded his observations on botany, po- 
mology, dendrology, zoology. 

" And he spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs 
were a thousand and five." Literature, theology, belles- 
lettres, music, art, architecture. His mind was many- 
sided, copious, comprehensive, " even as the sand that 
is on the sea-shore." " And there came of all people to 
hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth 
that had heard of his wisdom." 

In, Ecclesiastes we have the late results of the ex- 
periments of a lifetime of a mind like the sand of the 
sea-shore in its thirst for knowledge ; a composition 
alike wonderful for what it is not, and for what it is, — 
for what it does not say, and for what it says. It does 
not systematize. It does not philosophize. It does not 
analyze. It does not synthesize. It does not praise any 
nation, or scheme, or S3''stem, nor denounce any. It 
breathes the profoundest yet gentlest feeling of melan- 
choly. It is infinitely sad. It is almost too sad to be 



200 ^ SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

remorseful. The writer indeed tells his own experience, 
including his own follies, his own desolate and desperate 
speculations ; but it is not so much himself he is think- 
ing of, as of the whole creation groaning and travailing 
in pain together. " One generation passeth away, and 
another generation cometh : but the earth abideth for- 
ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, 
and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind 
goeth toward the south, and- turneth about unto the 
north ; it whirleth about continually, and the wind re- 
turneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers 
run into the sea ; yet the sea is not full : unto the place 
from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. 
All things are full of labor, man cannot utter it. The eye 
is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hear- 
ing. The thing which hath been is that which shall be ; 
and that which is done is that which shall be done : and 
there is no new thing under the sun." 

These are the quiet yet remorseful musings of a mind 
genial, benevolent, magnanimous, full ; a mind that has 
beat against the bars of its limitations till it is utterly 
exhausted. It has been wise and foolish ; sane and in- 
sane ; holy and unholy ; — it has known all there was to 
know, and found the great problem of the universe an 
insoluble enigma. It has tried all sensual delights ; 
orgies ; magic ; diabolism even ; intoxication ; until the 
capability of pleasurable excitement is gone. It has 
tried all normal pleasures ; thrift, industry ; art, science, 
literature, public spirit, commerce, war, religion ; — but 
to what end ? Old age is upon him ; when " the grass- 
hopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail, because 
man goeth to his long home." His plans have all ap- 
parently succeeded; his work has all been, in human es- 
timation, well done ; he has enjoyed it in the time of it ; 
but what does it amount to in a world like this ? What 



SOLOMON. 201 

will become of it the moment he is gone, — and that 
Rehoboam, or some other imbecile, takes the helm? 
His people are already complaining of his yoke as heavy. 
There is that Jeroboam too, with his plots. " Therefore 
I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun, 
because I should leave it unto the man that shall be 
after me ; and who knoweth whether he shall be a wise 
man or a fool ? " He had a shrewd suspicion that he 
would be a fool, — and so he was ; and it was an acute 
and piercing misery. 

Solomon had done well ; in many respects he had re- 
formed the Eden-Levitical tabernacle, and intrenched 
it on Moriah's top for another thousand years ; but he 
had been too complaisant. He says not a word about 
the Temple, or the Law, or the Covenant, or about his 
having burned incense at rival shrines, — claiming to 
be the only true primitive Eden-worship. But he does 
say : " I find more bitter than death the woman whose 
heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands ; whoso 
pleaseth God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall 
be taken by her." Those compliances with the ancient 
I'itual were not probably intended to be a precedent, or 
an example ; they did not displace nor interrupt the 
regular temple-service; it was a transient error, — but 
it was done, and could not be undone ; nor could its 
consequences be averted, namely, the disruption of that 
very empire he had sought to consolidate. He enters 
into no details. He merely breathes out the profoundest 
emotions of sorrow. The only lesson his life teaches is, 
" Fear God and keep his commandments ; for this is 
the whole duty of man." He had had a splendid op- 
portunity, he had made a splendid use of it ; but some- 
how he had missed the mark. He had been benevolent, 
but too complaisant. He had not strictly kept God's 
commandments. He had in fact yielded to the subtle 



202 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

assault of the invisible powers impelling him to reign in 
a self-glorifying spirit, as distinguished from a disin- 
terested or self-sacrificing benevolence. He meant to 
reign wisely and well, both for Israel and for mankind ; 
but did not realize that that could not be done without 
severe self-denial ; as he says, — and it is the rock on 
which he struck, — " And whatsoever mine eyes desired 
I kept not from them ; I withheld not my heart from 
any joy." 

In short, the theory of government Solomon attempted- 
to carry out was a benevolent and wise administration 
of a perfect system, without painful self-denial. Hence 
the matchless melancholy of his confessions. That 
method will not work well in this world, nor in any 
other world, even were it in the seventh heaven, least 
of all in a world composed of selfish spirits incarnated 
for the express purpose of being taught the rudiments 
of self-denial. 



THE PROPHETS. 203 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE PROPHETS. 

WE are struck with one fact in reading the proph- 
ets, and that is, the severity of their denuncia- 
tions of the developments in Jerusalem ; not merely in 
the neglect of rites, and forms, and the technics of re- 
ligion ; not merely in idolatry and all its crimes ; but in 
the violation of the golden rule, of common honesty, of 
^chastity, and of benevolence in all the relations of life. 

The prophets distinctly charge a worse state of mor- 
als in Israel than in surrounding nations. Jerusalem 
has done worse than Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon. She 
has. done as evil things as she could. Not only that, she 
is not ashamed ; she has lost the sense of shame ; she 
cannot even blush. There is no spectacle in human his- 
tory more instructive than that of individual prophets 
dealing with a corrupt, covenant-breaking nation. The 
nation is a harlot. So freely is language based on this 
analogy used, that modern sentimentalism is offended. 
The blows of prophetic reproof are like the strokes of 
an iron rod, or mace, or battle-axe. God is said to hew 
them by his prophets. The body politic is so beaten 
and bruised in the process that there is no place left to 
strike. Nor is it words alone : all the penalties of their 
Law (which was restricted to temporal sanctions only) 
are fulfilled, all the threats of Moses executed, until, 
" from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot," 
the whole body politic " is full of wounds, bruises, and 



204 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

putrefying sores." These utterances, and others of like 
character, which constitute the staple of the prophecies 
from Isaiah to Malachi, cannot be regarded as an out- 
growth of Hebrew or Semitic genius. Analogies of natu- 
ral growth do not seem appropriate. Analogies of con- 
flict, of opposing systems or parties, seem more in place. 

The prophet seems to be the organ of a manifestation 
from higher spheres ; and this manifestation is ever in 
favor of good morals, fair dealing, the golden rule. Rit- 
ual observances, without these, are often declared to be 
worse than useless. This is the most marked feature of 
the record from Isaiah to Malachi. The prophets gen- 
erally were sufferers. " Which of the prophets," said 
Stephen, " have not your fathers persecuted ? " " O Je- 
rusalem, Jerusalem," exclaims Jesus, " thou that kill- 
est the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto 
thee!" 

The Epistle to the Hebrews summarizes the expe- 
rience of the principal prophets : " And others had trial 
of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of 
bonds and imprisonment : they were stoned, they were 
sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: 
they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins ; be- 
ing destitute, afflicted, tormented ; (of whom the world 
was not worthy :) they wandered in deserts, and in 
mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."* 

Now, that these persecutions of the prophets were a 
natural evolution, a reaction of the national selfishness 
against salutary restraint, is easy to conceive ; but the 
question is respecting the prophecies themselves, which 
caused such reaction. Were they too a growth, a natu- 
ral product of Hebrew genius ? 

All spiritualists concede that the prophets were me- 
diums. They also agree in the principle that all com- 

. * Heb. xi. 36-38. 



THE PROPHETS. 205 

munications from spirit-sources must be judged by our 
reason and moral sense ; the tree must be known by its 
fruits. Consistently with these principles, spiritualists 
must acknowledge that the spectacle presented by the 
decadence of Israel, from the time of Solomon to the 
exile, looks like an effort of the divine Spirit, through 
the prophets, to control that Hebrew disposition, and 
form it to virtue, truth, and goodness, in spite of its 
constant waywardness and indocility. 

The ten tribes, soon after the death of Solomon, with- 
draw, and nationalize idolatry, in the form probably of 
a compromise between the old patriarchal and the Mo- 
saic, or reformed, ritual ; they are carried away by Shal- 
manezer, and disappear from the ken of history ; yet 
there are, no doubt, families left behind of every tribe. 

In Judea there are a succession of declensions and 
reformations, each descent swifter and deeper than the 
preceding. There are indeed a few here and there, 
even in darkest times, faithful to covenant ; there were 
seven thousand even in Israel under Ahab. There was a 
" remnant " in Judea, even though the ruling classes — 
the court, the priests — were corrupt. It was ever when 
declension reached its lowest stage that the bursts of pro- 
phetic denunciation became most vivid. These, which 
some have regarded as natural growths of the Semitic 
genius, are always in inverse ratio to the general health 
and good morals of the nation. But while the credit of 
the prophetic unfolding has been given to the Hebrew 
nature, or Semitic genius, the discredit of the declen- 
sion has been given to the system. That is the outcome 
of the system ! By the admission of the prophets, the 
ethnic religions evolved better results ; Parseeism bore 
better fruit. Confucianism and Buddhism were more 
successful than this ; so with Greek and Roman train- 
ing. Those nations that the Lord left in the care of the 



206 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

cosmocracy did better than the nation which he took 
special pains to reform. But why not credit the sin to 
the nation and the system to God ? The system failed 
because it was too good, too exacting. Ethnic systems 
attempted less, and seemed to succeed better ; but the 
success was temporary. The Mosaic system aimed at 
simple perfection, — "Do unto others as ye would that 
they should do unto you." Of course, the recoil of self- 
ishness, guile, and pride was greater from the attempted 
coercion, but the failure was not so total as it seemed. 
There was " a remnant " in whom deep spiritual results 
were attained ; and the style of character evolved in 
these, from the very fact of their being in the minority, 
called to stand not only against the influence of sur- 
rounding nations, with their imposing military, religious, 
and philosophic systems, but against corrupt majorities 
at home, was of peculiar value. It developed fortitude, 
faith, self-denial, patience, and other virtues, in an em- 
inent degree ; the gold was refined in a furnace of trial. 
At the same time, sublime prophecies of the final tri- 
umph of truth and love were uttered, growing brighter 
in proportion as the nation at large grew more corrupt. 

Spiritualists cannot look on such prophecies as a natu- 
ral growth of the national genius ; they must regard 
them as not only emanating from spirits, but from spirits 
of the highest grade of intelligence and goodness, and as 
therefore eminently reliable and precious : and wherever 
there is a direct and palpable antagonism between the 
philosophy and religion of Israel and that of ethnic sys- 
tems, so that both cannot be right, — there the spirits 
energizing through the former were right, and those 
energizing through the latter were wrong. In short, 
spiritualists, on their own premises, must admit the ex- 
istence of two great parties, or. kingdoms, in the spirit- 
world, between whom a great controversy is going on in 



THE PEOPHETS. 207 

respect to the principles of good government. Out of 
this conflict in higher realms all earthly history evolves 
itself. We watch the game with interest enhanced from 
the fact that the players are invisible. We strive to 
comprehend the successive moves on the mighty chess- 
board, and form some approximate estimate of their 
play. 



208 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

' THE EXILE. 

^NE of the most interesting crises in the great game 
of ages is the seventy years exile in Babylon. To 
study it aright we need to divest ourselves a little of the 
associations of our own age, and assume, even though 
imperfectly, the mental habits of that. We command 
that buried city on the banks of Euphrates to rise from 
its sepulchre of ages, and pulsate, as it did then, with 
the heart-beat of a world's life. And we command our- 
selves to think as they thought, feel as they felt, believe 
as they believed, that we mortals are nothing and the 
immortals all ; that we are motes upon the stream, leaves 
borne upon the breeze, and that the real forces in all 
the grand drama of existence are from the gods. 

We are to see the Golden City as it appeared to that 
Hebrew Child, fresh from a simple highland home in 
Judah. What a paradise that rich alluvial plain, 
through which rolled magnificent Euphrates ! No moun- 
tains save those mountain-walls with their ponderous 
brazen gates and lofty towers. It is a magnificent devel- 
opment of the arts, sciences, arms, wealth, literature, and 
religion of the age. Nebuchadnezzar, who had brought 
her architectural glory to its zenith, was himself an em- 
bodiment or personification of the world-empire, visible 
and invisible. " Thou, O king, art the Head of Gold ! " 
In thinking of him and of this " golden city," — this 
"lady of kingdoms," — we gain an indistinct but im- 
pressive image (by analogy) of the invisible cosmo- 



THE EXILE. 209 

cratic prince, whose spirit and policy were here em- 
bodied. And in the feelings and principles of that 
Captive Child we gain a slight conception of the emo- 
tions and principles of Israel's invisible Advocate and 
Friend. 

Who could dream that that metropolis, "dwelling upon 
many waters, abundant in treasures," — that " destroy- 
ing mountain,"' from whose gates had rolled the red 
lava streams of war, could ever pass away ? Her monarch 
had recovered Syria and Palestine, reduced Tyre, and 
ravaged Egypt, and brought the treasures of the world 
to enrich his capital ! We feel sympathetically, in im- 
agination, the elation, the exhilaration of spirit, in court 
and camp and market-place. " Is not this Great Baby- 
lon that I have builded ! " "I am, and none else ! " There 
'is no other empire, no other city, no other metropolis, 
worthy of being named but this ! And in this feeling, 
as all the sculptures show, there is a constant reference 
to the supernal powers. The monarch says in every 
public act of worship. In me and in my realm, the intel- 
ligences I adore express themselves. We accept the 
thought. We reproduce the sublime conviction. And 
in so doing we gain an insight, dim indeed but approxi- 
matingly correct, into the realities of the unseen cosmo- 
cratic dynasty. We understand something of that cycle 
of history in the visible and in the invisible world. 

CoiTupt as the Jewish nation had become, there were 
families of piety here and there, and individuals, like 
Daniel and his three friends. And when the iron rod 
dashed the nation in pieces, these clung with greater 
tenacity to their sacred writings, and their faith in the 
Living One. And while they cheerfully obeyed the 
prophetic command, " Build ye houses, and dwell in 
them ; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them ; 
take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters ; and take 
14 



210 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

wives for your sons, and give your daughters to hus- 
bands, that they may bear sons and daughters ; that ye 
may be increased there, and not diminished. -And seek 
the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be 
carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it : for 
in the peace thereof shall ye have peace," * they had no 
thought of abandoning their religion even in its strictest 
details. The captive child might be taken into favor by 
the king, but he would never sink into a court parasite, 
or indulge in the idolatrous feasts of the palace. He 
would take his own independent course from the very 
beginning, as holding communion with the living God, 
and him alone. This was indeed hiding the leaven in 
three measures of meal. Babylon was, and was to be, 
the resort of sages from other lands. Here Thales, Py- 
thagoras, perhaps Plato, and other leaders of the world's 
thought, "were to come in quest of knowledge. In an- 
ticipation of their quest, providence has brought here a 
child of singular abilities, resolved from the first to be 
true to the Lord God of his fathers. 

We by no means undervalue the advantages enjoyed 
by the captive Israelites of acquiring knowledge in 
Babylon. We are far from undervaluing the more 
ancient opportunities Moses possessed of rescuing from 
oblivion whatever was worthy of preservation in the 
archives of Egypt. He could estimate the Hermetic 
books correctly, for he had them whole and entire, with 
living sacerdotal instructors to explain them. So Daniel 
had access to whatever of primitive revelation had come 
down in this line of descent. To him the cuneiform 
tablets were in ho need of painful decipherment, conject- 
ural, fragmentary. He had access to royal libraries, with 
royal librarians at his command. Whatever was really 
worth preserving he could, and, as we conceive, did pre- 

* Jer. xxix. 4, 5. v 



THE EXILE. 211 

serve. But he was vastl}^ better qualified to teach Baby- 
lon, than Babylon was to teach him. He had in the 
writings of Moses, and David, and Solomon, condensa- 
tions of thought and emotion infinitely transcending all 
Babylon could boast ; and he and his three friends were 
themselves drinking of the water of life at the fountain- 
head. " God gave them knowledge and skill in all 
learning and wisdom ; and Daniel had understanding in 
all visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days 
that the king had said he should bring them in, then the 
prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebu- 
chadnezzar. And the king communed with them ; and 
among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, 
Mishael, and Azariah : therefore stood they before the 
king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, 
that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times 
better than all the magicians and astrologers that were 
in all his realm." In illustration of this, we have the 
account, given with all the vividness and simplicity of 
Oriental story, of the king's forgotten dream, which his 
wise men can neither reproduce nor expound. Daniel 
does both, describing the image — symbol of successive 
world-empires, — gold, silver, brass, iron, and stone ; — 
Babjdon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and a fifth, whose 
shock the image still standing on feet of iron and clay 
awaits. 

The result of this spiritual manifestation was to place 
Daniel at the head of the magi and other wise men of 
Babylon. This is a fact whose profound significance spir- 
itualists can appreciate. Daniel was a medium. The 
spirits operating through him were of the highest, pu- 
rest, most benevolent character. The mediumship of 
Babylon had become sadly corrupt, as the clay tablets 
recently deciphered abundantly show.* It had been 
* Lenormant, La Magie chez les Chdlde'ens, passim. 



212 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

made the subservient instrument of ambition, worldly 
policy, and of superstitious terrorism. 

Now, however, the college of magicians (if we may 
so term it) is transformed into a school of the prophets, 
with a child of the covenant at the head, in whom was 
indeed " the spirit of the holy gods." Then followed, 
during a long and useful life, edict after edict from 
the monarch to the various nationalities of the empire, 
proclaiming the name of Israel's God. It is a series of 
state papers of unequalled interest. And if we set a 
high value on the tantalizing fragments of the clay-tablet 
records, how much higher on these, preserved to us entire 
from the archives of the realm ? In the exile, therefore, 
all spiritualists will see a wonderful mingling of mercy 
with severity, — severity to Israel, mercy to man ; for it 
was overruled to be a grand evangelizing agency, pre- 
paring Babylon to be the school of Pythagoras and other 
Greek philosophers, — a school whose remote effects we 
are even yet experiencing, while we have no mean3 of 
accurately traceing them. 



THE EETUBN. 213 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE RETFRN. 

THREE quarters of a century the captives dwelt in 
Babylon ; for more than two generations they so- 
journed in a strange land, and called it home. A few 
old men might " remember Zion," and the far-off hills of 
" fatherland ; " but the majority had never looked upon 
any other metropolis than Babylon. Even the language 
of Canaan was partially forgotten.* The child that 
opened its eyes within Babylon's mountain walls might 
hear his mother or grandparent tell of Jerusalem, but it 
seemed like a heavenly vision or dream, — as " Jeru- 
salem above, mother of us all," now seems to us, who 
have also forgotten the language of our heavenly father- 
land. 

Many had lost all wish to return. Babylon was enough 
for them ; Jerusalem might seem attractive to those of a 
visionary and fanatical turn of mind, but Babylon, for 
practical, matter-of-fact minds, was better. But Daniel's 
prayer shows that there were those who remembered the 
Holy City, and fatherland, with deathless affection and 
longing. These were, in truth, the more spiritual and 
devotional part of the nation. Thus the wheat was win- 
nowed from the chaff. When their Assyrian neighbors 
said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion," — for they 
were fascinated by the strange wild melody, — the exiles 

* Hence the origin of the Chaldee paraphrase after the Beturn, to be 
used in the public readings of the sacred books. 



214 SPIEITUAl. MANIFESTATIONS. 

replied, as they hung their lyres on the willows, " How 
shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land ? ' ' Just 
a^ we sometimes feel in the great moral Babel of life, 
when asked to sing the sweet songs of Zion simply as a 
pastime. To many of the later-born, — ignorant of the 
story of the past ; the sacred scrolls in what was fast be- 
coming a dead language ; the traditions and associations 
of home obliterated as by the waters of Lethe, — the idea 
of an emigration might seem dreadful and repulsive. But 
to those who saw in the captivity a chastisement for 
national unfaithfulness, and in the return a possibility 
for a higher spiritual life, the case was different. They 
applied themselves to confession and fervent supplication 
for forgiveness. 

Daniel's prayer is a beautiful instance of this, espe- 
cially if we regard it as substantially embodying the 
ideas and emotions of all the more thoughtful and de- 
vout. The great idea of a return fills the soul. That 
backward migration must begin, which shall efface the 
ties of seventy years like cobwebs, and knit anew the 
broken threads of national reminiscence and association 
of ideas on the heights of Moriah, and Carmel, and 
Hermon, and Lebanon. The seer himself, now old and 
gray, might be unable to bear the fatigues and risks 
of the undertaking ; but with what fervor he expresses 
the true national feeling ! ~ 

" O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but untol 
us confusion of faces, as at this day ; to the men of 
Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto 
all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through 
all the countries whither thou hast driven them, be- 
cause of their trespass that they have trespassed against 
thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to 
our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because 
we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God 



THE RETURN. 215 

belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled 
against him ; neither have we obeyed the voice of the 
Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set be- 
fore us by his servants the prophets. Yea, all Israel 
have transgressed the law, even by departing, that they 
might not obey thy voice ; therefore the curse is poured 
upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of 
Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned 
against him. And he hath confirmed his words, which 
he spake against us, and against our "judges that judged 
us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the 
whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done 
upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, 
all this evil is come upon us : yet made we not our 
prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn 
from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. There- 
fore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought 
it upon us : for the Lord our God is righteous in all his 
works which he doeth : for we obeyed not his voice. 
And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people 
forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and 
hast gotten thee renown, as at this day ; we have sinned, 
we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all thy 
righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy 
fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy 
mountain : 'because for our sins, and for the iniquities of 
our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a re- 
proach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our 
God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplica- 
tions, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary 
that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline 
thine ear, and hear ; open thine eyes, and behold our 
desolations, and the city which is called by thy name : 
for we do not present our supplications before thee for 
our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, 



216 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

hear ; O Lord, forgive ; O Lord, hearken and do ; defer 
not, for thine own sake, O my God : for thy city and 
thy people are called by thy name." 

To this earnest cry, the response was instantaneous, 
as the prophet himself goes on to inform us. " And 
while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my 
sin, and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my 
supplication before the Lord my God for the holy moun- 
tain of my God ; yea, while I was speaking in prayer, 
even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at 
the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me 
about the time of the evening oblation. And he in- 
formed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I 
am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. 
At the beginning of thy supplications the command- 
ment came forth, and I am come to show thee ; for thou 
art greatly beloved : therefore understand the matter, 
and consider the vision." * 

Just here the veil is partly lifted, and we see con- 
troversies going on among the celestial princes. The 
prophet, finding the years of the captivity drawing to 
a close, humbles himself with fasting and prayer, and 
confesses the sins of Israel. Gabriel is immediately 
sent to communicate that sublime prophecy : " Seventy 
weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy 
holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an 
end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, 
and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal 
up the vision and prophecy, and . to anoint the Most 
Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the 
going forth of the commandment to restore and to 
build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be 
seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks : the street 
shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous 

* Daniel ix. 7-23. 



THE RETURN. 217 

times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Mes- 
siah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of 
the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the 
sanctuary ; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, 
and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one 
week : and in the midst of the week he shall cause the 
sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the over- 
spreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, 
even until the consummation, and that determined shall 
be poured upon the desolate." * 

Again we find the prophet fasting and praying for a 
period of three weeks. He has a sublime vision, in the 
course of which the angel says : " Fear not, Daniel : for 
from the first day that thou didst set thy heart to under- 
stand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words 
were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the 
prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and 
twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, 
came to help me ; and I remained there with the kings 
of Persia." f Having then strengthened and encouraged 
him, — for the prophet was overwhelmed by the majesty 
of the celestial visitant, — he continues : " O man greatly 
beloved, fear not : peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, 
be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was 
strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak ; for thou hast 
strengthened me. Then said he, Knowest thou where- 
fore I come unto thee ? and nov,* will I return to fio-ht 
with the prince of Persia : and when I am gone forth, 
lo, the prince of Grecia shall come. But I will show 
thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth : and 
there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but 
Michael your prince." J 

Here, as all spiritualists will not fail to perceive, it is 

* Dan. ix. 24-27. f Dan. x. 12, 13. J Dan. x. 19-21. 



218 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

plain that a division of sentiment existed in the invisible 
world, and that not merely among spirits of low grade, 
but among " chief princes." There are two parties, two 
armies, or two kingdoms, with their respective chiefs. 
Perhaps the controversy turned for the moment on the 
question of restoration. Why, it may have been argued, 
disturb existing arrangements ? Why attempt to re- 
organize that unmanageable nation again in Palestine ? 
Would they not do more good thus distributed among 
other nations ? Would they not be a leaven in all the 
Oriental civilizations from age to age ? especially as the 
empires of the West were rising fast in importance. It 
would not bejong before a wave of civilization from the 
Grecian isles would be washing over Syrian plains. Let 
well enough alone. To put Israel back as an inde- 
pendent nation would only breed strife, and do neither 
them nor any other people any good. So spiritualists 
can conceive of the cosmocratic powers reasoning. 

A new chapter of prophecy had unrolled before them, 
containing matters that must excite their latent jealousy. 
Something is said of Messiah, the Anointed, though 
couched in ambiguous phrase, something that cannot be 
ignored. What may be the secret plans of the advo- 
cates of the Restoration ? Strong must have been the 
adverse pressure to make Gabriel' say, " There is none 
that holdeth with me in these things but Michael, your 
prince." Through this adverse influence it may be, in 
addition to the natural inclination of the exiles them- 
selves, that so small a minority of the dispersion re- 
turned. A multitude of families remained, but, in after 
years, their attachment to Jerusalem, though it had not 
been, practically strong enough to carry them back, be- 
came a latent element of romance within them, increas- 
ing from year to year, until its power was perhaps 
greater than if they had returned; so that at great 



THE RETURN. 219 

festivals there might be assembled at Jerusalem repre- 
sentatives of wealthy families, — " devout men of every 
nation under heaven, Parthians, and Medes, and Ela- 
mites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia." Thus study- 
ing the history of the exile and return, we deepen our 
impression of the reahty and comprehensiveness of that 
divine plan, adverted to in a former chapter, which 
placed Israel in the centre of moral action and reaction 
for the ages. 



220 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

MACCABEAN ERA. 

THE period between the return and the advent is 
largely the period of Greek influence ; and Greek 
influence, if not democratic, was decidedly not abso- 
lutist, after the measure and manner of preceding em- 
pires. In Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, we find 
absolutism pure and simple ; not a mere human abso- 
lutism, but absolutism transcendent. The king not 
merely pretends to be a god, he fully believes himself 
such ; and more, he actually is the organ and instru- 
ment of cosmocratic powers, and breathes the full spirit 
of their tremendous absolutism. 

If, when Persia went down before the shock of the 
brazen-coated Macedonian phalanx, a new spirit breathed 
in, spiritualists can understand it was because the cos- 
mocratic powers had themselves progressed ; the policy 
of Restoration had triumphed, as the result of moral 
action and reaction in upper realms, — the home of 
ideas, the primeval source of theories, philosophies, the- 
ologies, diplomacies, and idealities in general. Israel by 
the dispersion had become cosmopolitan, yet by the re- 
turn was centralized. The temple was rebuilt ; and the 
system, less catastrophic, but more philosophic and prac- 
tical, was there, and could not be dislodged. A change 
of policy was inevitable. Let the old absolutism go. 
Here Greece is rising ; yonder is Iron Rome, — wolf- 
suckled. There shall be a new empire of philosophy 



MACCABEAJSr ERA. 221 

and art, and Israel shall be made an available element 
in that. 

Alexander enters upon the scene, — descendant of 
Achilles, son of Philip, pupil of Aristotle, and passion- 
ate admirer of Homer. In Homer, contemporary of 
Elijah, we see a bard of the groves, a vates, a prophet 
of the patriarchal system. From the fascinations of his 
page we may judge a httle the fascination of his living 
presence, and voice, and lyre (and such as his), upon 
susceptible minds of Oriental habits, in groves, and high 
places, and classic fanes, and solemn adyta, with all the 
accompaniments of sense, and secrecy, and the sanctions 
of primeval antiquity ; and we cease to wonder so much 
that Israel went after the magnet, and left Elijah alone 
to pray for death. 

Alexander, through all his campaigns and marchings, 
slept with Homer under his pillow. Homer's martial 
strains fired his native enthusiasm and shaped his con- 
quering career. The Iliad was his Old Testament, the 
Ody8%ey (that Pilgrim's Progress of antiquity) his New. 
But it was an age of great men. Demosthenes and 
Aristotle were contemporary with Plato, Plato with 
Socrates, Socrates with Herodotus and Ezra, within a 
space of two centuries after the captivity. Alexander 
was the Napoleon of the old world, with gigantic plans 
and large and liberal conceptions. He broke in pieces 
the slavish despotisms that had preceded him, and 
sought to equalize and combine the nations in a more 
liberal empire. Barriers of race and tongue were some- 
what broken down ; the way was prepared for a larger 
civihzation and higher ideas of life, or what were deemed 
such. The ideas of the schools became diffused in prac- 
tical forms, and the Greek language became the almost 
universal medium of literary, commercial, and official 
intercourse. 



222 SPIRITUAL MANIFEST ATIONS. 

On no nation had all this a more powerful effect than 
on the Jewish, whether for good or for evil. Offended 
at their refusal to pay tribute, Alexander, after the cap- 
ture of Tyre, marched upon Jerusalem, meditating ven- 
geance. Josephus states that he was met by the priests 
in their robes of office. At first sight, the conqueror 
rushed forward and knelt to the high-priest with awe 
and veneration, and on Parmenio inquiring the reason, 
said that before his Asiatic campaign, at Dio in Mace- 
donia, there appeared to him in a dream this very man 
in this very dress, and invited him to invade Asia.* 
The conqueror of the East then entered Jerusalem, 
offered gifts, and worshipped in the temple ; and the 
prophecies of Daniel were spread before him. From 
that time the Jews became, as it were, his special protS- 
ges, as they continued to be of his descendants till the 
time of Antiochus. 

Here, then, was Grecian influence paramount in Pal- 
estine. The Jewish system, under the restoration by 
Ezra, was more ecclesiastical and less political as the 
oral law or tradition gained prestige. The Jew could 
be somewhat cosmopolitan without being an idolater. 
Ritualism interposed a barrier against Greek license. 
The idea of the unity of God successfully antagonized 
the subtleties of philosophic pantheism. Of course, sects 
would arise analogous, as some have remarked, to the 
typical forms of Greek philosophy. 

Thus Alexander was the schoolmaster of nations, and 
especially of Israel, to teach them Greek and many new 
ideas. The city he built in Egypt and named after him- 
self, Alexandria, perpetuated his influence, and power- 
fully affected the thought of subsequent ages. That in 
all this the cosmocratic powers had a design, all spirit- 
ualists will understand ; and that in it, to a certain ex- 
tent, the adverse parties of the upper realms might have 

* Josephus, Antiq., Lib. XI. chap. 8. 



MACCABEAN ERA. 



223 



been agreed, is conceivable. The party favoring restora- 
tion, however, we conceive, had deeper designs, in^ired 
by the divine Spirit, than could be then disclosed. Alex- 
ander was himself conscious of being the instrument of 
higher powers ; and when his preceptor Aristotle ad- 
vised him to treat the Greeks as freemen, but the Orien- 
tals as slaves, he replied that it was his divine mission 
to unite and reconcile the world. 

The question then arises, Why should the unseen pow- 
ers prompt or permit the terrible reversal of this policy 
by Antiochus, and the attempt to annihilate the Jewish 
system ? Selfishness is divisive, and defeats itself. The 
prince of the aerial powers did not tempt Alexander to 
be a drunkard. He was, we may well suppose, ashamed 
of him. It was mortifying to be obliged to use instru- 
' ments so liable to go wrong, and, for the sake of tem- 
porary gratifications, to wreck great plans. The selfish 
powers could never calculate the chances of innate 
development-forces of selfish minds. Alexander died in 
a drunken debauch, leaving grand designs unexecuted, 
and his empire fell in pieces. The Seleucidse continued 
the same favorable policy towards the Jews, admitting 
them to equal privileges in the cities, even Antioch, 
the capital. The consequence was a gradual migration 
homeward, and they became, both at home and abroad, 
an element of strength, a bond of union to the empire. 
For a similar reason the Ptolemies favored them. They 
were on the frontier between the rival empires, which 
were induced, as it were, to bid against each other for 
their favor ; and when Antiochus the Great conquered 
Palestine from the Ptolemies, although the Jews suf- 
fered from the war in their territory, the victor be- 
stowed on them honors and new exemptions. Thus, in 
an age when no small nation could long hope for inde- 
pendence, there was none so nearly independent as the 



224 SPmiTUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

Jews. This may have excited the jealousy of the invis- 
ible powers. Might this be the stone cut out of the 
mountains without hands ? Might there be here, in this 
new growth of the covenant nation, some concealed ele- 
ment fatal to cosmocratic supremacy ? 

Such may have been the motive in worlds unseen 
for either instigating or at least not trying to prevent 
a kind of crusade against Judaism, especially as now the 
grand Empire of the West was drawing nigh, to which 
the cosmocrats might transfer their ambitious designs, 
already frustrated by the frailty of older empires. When 
Epiphanes came to the throne he found an exchequer 
impoverished by wars and revolts, and tributary to 
Rome. The Jews had grown rich ; vast treasures had 
accumulated in their temple. They had been fostered 
and favored. Why should they not fully identify them- 
selves with the empire, in arts, manners, and religion ? 
Thus they would become homogeneous with the Greek 
population, and render service in proportion to the ben- 
efits they had received. The attempt was made to trans- 
form them into Greeks. They must relinquish circum- 
cision, give up the Law, and adopt Grecian language, 
manners, and sacrifices. If the cosmocrats put Anti- 
ochus up to this, they blundered. If he did it in spite 
of them, they doubtless execrated his stupidity, though 
they may have secretly felt as they did when Haman 
planned to exterminate the race. By one of those sud- 
den vicissitudes common to Oriental story, the Jews 
found themselves in a furnace. The armies of Anti- 
ochus filled the land with scenes of massacre and blood ; 
the temple was pillaged ; swine's flesh offered on the 
desecrated altars ; all copies of the Law were sought to 
be destroyed. All who had not the true martyr-spirit 
yielded, and burned incense on Grecian altars. Then 
rose the gallant Maccabees, and the war of Jewish in- 



MACCABEAN ERA. 225 

dependence was fought out triumphantly. The army 
of Israel, animated by religious enthusiasm, like Crom- 
well's Ironsides, broke in pieces and destroyed hosts 
much larger than itself, led by accomplished command- 
ers, trained in all the Macedonian arts of war. 

Tims, in the empyreal world the princes of Israel pre- 
vailed. The cosmocracy, seeing this, accept the result 
and seek to turn it to their own purposes. They take 
up the victorious Maccabees and praise them, as if they 
had always been on their side ; and they seek to breathe 
through them a worldly spirit of nationality quite differ- 
ent from the simple idea embodied in the law of Moses. 
In that system there was nothing between the soul and 
God, who dwelt between the cherubim, and whose throne 
of mercy was the ark containing the Law of Love ; and 
Avhile the nation was for a time isolated, in self-defence, 
from idolatrous nations, the plan was catholic, and the 
temple a house of prayer for all nations. But now the 
Oral Law, or tradition, took precedence of the written 
law ; now the priesthood was usurped by the civil 
power, in person of Jonathan, youngest son of Matta- 
tbias. The national unity, while recoiling to the extreme 
of exclusiveness towards Gentiles, was now broken by 
intensity and narrowness of sectarian feeling, as between 
the Pharisees (or Puritans), the Sadducees (or Conserva- 
tives), the Essenes (or Ascetics), and the Zealots (or 
patriotic Ultraists), and the floating vote, that alter- 
nated between contending factions. At the same time, 
a treaty offensive and defensive was concluded between 
a Maccabean prince and the Roman Senate. 

Thus the tares were sown among the wheat. Thus 
the cosmocratic powers energized to tie the nation by a 
four- and five-fold cord. Now let the deliverer come, if 
come he must. Now let us see the man that shall show 
us how we ought to administer universal empire. 
15 



226 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE ANCIENT CITY. 

BUT let ns look a little more closely at that great 
city which was then reigning over the kings of the 
earth ; the city, — that is to say the religion, of Rome, — 
for the Eternal City was, by actual historical evolution, 
an embodied religion. It was not a civilization which 
had blossomed into a religion ; it was a religion which 
had embodied itself, spire, stalk, ear, and kernel, in a 
civilization. 

We have traced in a former chapter the probable origin 
of the ancient polytheism.* De Coulanges, in his inter- 
esting work "The Ancient City," attempts to trace the 
whole system back to the belief that the spirits of the 
dead inhabited the tomb, and required food in order to 
be happy. We think his premises too narrow, and have 
indicated in the chapter referred to what seems to us the 
more natural causes of the system, namely : 1. The 
original Eden emblems handed down by tradition and 
corrupted. 2. The analogies of the material system. 
3. Innate national idiosyncrasies. 4. Affectionate com- 
memoration of the departed, 5. The direct agency of 
spirit communications. All these powerful causes, com- 
bined, enable us to account for the wonderful system of 
ancient polytheism, which is by no means extinct, but 
still survives under various modified, forms and names, 
exercising a powerful sway over the world's thought and 

* Chap. XIII. pp. 113-121, 



THE ANCIENT CITY. 227 

life. With this modification, we can follow out the ar- 
guiiient of De Coulanges with confidence and great 
profit. The dead were gods, and tombs bore the inscrip- 
tion "to the subterranean gods." Every house had its 
altar, on which a fire was kept ever burning to the wor- 
ship, of the departed, who were accounted sacred, and 
to whom were applied the most reverential epithets. 
Wicked men, as well as good, became gods, retaining 
the bad inclinations they had manifested in their earthly 
life. 

The Romans called the departed 3Ia7ies, and their 
tombs were temples inscribed " Dis Manibus,^^ or " deioXg 
xOorioigy Before each tomb was an altar for sacrifice. 
If the funeral repasts were neglected, the dead left their 
tombs ; reproached the living for their negligence ; be- 
came wandering shades ; were heard in the silence of 
night, and gave men no rest till the sacrifices were re- 
established. Thus the spirits exerted a powerful agency 
in the formation of the system. It was forced upon the 
living. It was not wholly a natural evolution by instinct. 
Men were really haunted. They had, no peace. Powers 
unseen compelled them to establish the ritual. These 
deified spirits were called demons, heroes, lares, genii, 
and other names. On the first of March the perpetual 
altar-fire, or hearth-fire, was extinguished and relighted, 
either by friction, or by the rays of the sun concentrated 
by a lens. This fire they adored as divine, — it was the 
providence, the defender of the family. Every meal 
was a religious act, beginning and ending with a re- 
ligious rite, an oblation, and libation; — thus the divine 
fire as it were ate with them. This fire was, in their 
view, not the fire of material nature : it was pure ; it 
was chaste ; it was a sort of moral being, endowed with 
intelligence and conscience, knowing men's duties and 
enforcing them. Subsequently this fire was named 



228 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

Vesta Qazitt^ hearth, changed to a proper name) ; she 
was regarded as a virgin goddess, a moral order, the 
universal soul regulating the different movements of 
worlds, as the human soul keeps in order the human 
system. In common language they came ultimately to 
say, indifferently, either "hearth," or "domestic lares,", 
or "penates," or " Vesta." 

This religion was essentially private and not public ; 
of many gods and not of one ; — though here, as already 
intimated, we cannot agree with our author in thinking 
that this was the earliest form. Bunsen states that 
the names of the supernal gods are found on the oldest 
monuments ; and in Eden, Jehovah manifested himself 
by his Shekinah-flame. Bearing this in mind, we see 
that the worship of the mortal ancestor, the nether 
deities, had practically crowded out that of the One 
living and true God, even where the knowledge of 
the fact of his existence and attributes survived. The 
gods of this domestic religion were as many as the fami- 
lies. The dead ancestor desired no worship save from 
his descendants. The Greek term for worship was 
nuTQi&teiv^ (Latin parentare,') denoting parent-worship. 
The family tomb was near the house, not far from the 
door. The sacred fire of one house had nothing in 
common with that of another. Every fire protected its 
own, while it repulsed the stranger. All the rites were 
kept strictly secret. Each family had its own rites, 
formulas, hymns. This religion could be propagated 
only by generation. The father gave to his son his 
creed, his forms, his worship, the right to continue the 
sacred fire, offer the funeral meal, and pronounce the 
formulas of prayer. 

This religion was the foundation of the famity itself ; 
not generation, not natural affection, not superior 
strength. Greek and Roman laws make no account 



THE AI^^CIENT CITY. 229 

of these. The ancient Greek word for family is iniajiov^ 
signifying that which is near a hearth. A family is 
" circle around a hearth." The word i^ater (father) did 
not include the idea of generation ; pater was synony- 
mous, not with genitor but with rex ; the father was 
the priest and king. The unmarried daughter shares 
the worship of her father ; the wife, that of her husband. 
She must be dismissed from her father's religion before she 
can unite with her husband's religion. Marriage is there- 
fore strictly a religious transaction, involving three parts : 

1. The act of the father before the family hearth, 
giving her to the husband, and severing her connection 
with the household-worship. 

2. The nofiTTTj^ or carrying her veiled, crowned, dressed 
in white, preceded by a torch, to her husband's dwelling, 
with sacred chants, and a refrain 6 i^iiv 6 ifiivaie, and 
the carrying the bride (after a feigned resistance) across 
the threshold. 

3. The confarreatio, — she approaches the hearth; she 
is sprinkled with lustral water ; she touches the sacred 
fire ; prayers are repeated ; they share between them a 
cake or small loaf. She is now in religious communion 
with her husband, initiated into the worship of the 
family gods. The old Roman law defines a wife as " a 
companion in things human and divine." The wife 
worships no longer her own ancestors, but those of her 
husband. Marriage is to her a kind of second birth, a 
regeneration. Divorce was difficult, and could only be 
effected by a kind of excommunication, a diffarreatio^ 
in which the}" refused to eat the cake together before the 
fire, and the wife with a strange formula of malediction 
renounced the worship and gods of her husband. The 
entrance of polygamy was foreign to such a system, and 
is an abuse to be accounted for from varied causes of 
innate development-force and environment. 



p-* 



230 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

Here, also, is the origin of the ancient right of primo- 
geniture. The oldest was begotten for the performance 
of the duties to the ancestors; he was, therefore, the 
continuator of the worship, the religious 'chief (or pater} ; 
he alone should therefore inherit property. The other 
brothers live under his authority as if they were " under 
that of their father. 

Our author makes no attempt to show how rites so 
beautiful and impressive could originate from the idea 
that souls lived in the tomb. But to our mind every 
step in the delineation of these ancient customs deepens 
our profound feeling that several causes combined in 
the production of such rites, — the veneration of the 
dead, and the memory of the Shekinah-flame, the 
first home of the race, " the presence of the Lord," and 
the first divinely solemnized marriage. For the mar- 
riage relation is, as already shown, in itself a divinely 
created emblem, or analogic symbol, of the relation be - 
tween the Lord and his redeemed. Hence Paul, quot- 
ing the words of Adam, " For this cause shall a man 
leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and 
they twain shall be one flesh," says, " This is a great 
mysterj^ (that is, a profound analogical symbol,) but I 
speak of Christ and the Church." * Accordingly when 
the mighty drama winds up, in the Revelation, it is in 
Paradise the scene is laid, and there we behold the mar- 
riage of the Lamb. 

Now all spiritualists can easily see that spirits design- 
ing to erect and consolidate a world-empire might take 
advantage of such traditions and build up a system such 
as actually existed in Judea, Greece, and Rome ; nor 
will it to their minds look like a mere natural evolution, 
any more than improved varieties of apples, peaches, 
and pears look like spontaneous evolutions of seedling 

* Ephes. V. 32. 



THE ANCIENT CITY. 231 

stocks. All improved varieties of fruits demand the in- 
tervention of beings of a different species, — by budding, 
or grafting. So with improved breeds of animals. Im- 
proved varieties come indeed, in a sense, by natural 
law, — but there must be intervention. There must be 
catastrophism. Grafting is catastrophism. More cen- 
turies than lie between us and the pliocene epoch would 
not improve a cider-apple without a grafting-knife. If 
the Calaveras skull be genuine, those ages have not much 
improved the human brain, for you cannot bud brains. 
The angels attempted an extensive grafting operation, 
but the results did not encourage a repetition of the ex- 
periment. Polytheism was the product of a more dis- 
creet policy through the agency of departed spirits, 
operating through certain psychologic laws by us but 
partially comprehended. 

The object of marriage, according to our author, vs^as 
to perpetuate the religion of the family. The extinction 
of a family was the extinction of a religion. It left the 
household gods unprovided for. They became paupers, 
tramps, unhapp}", revengeful, malignant. The object of 
marriage was to beget a sou who might perform the 
funeral rites. Celibacy was impious.' Sterility was a 
good ground for divorce. The son must be initiated 
into the family religion. On the ninth day, the father 
sacrificed to the fire ; the infant was carried several 
times round the hearth, (thus freeing him from the 
stain supposed to be contracted by gestation.) and to 
admit him into this church of the family. 

All ancient kinship * depended on this household re- 
ligion. Kinship between two men lay in the fact that 
they could worship together the same ancestral gods. 
Kinship, therefore, ran in the male line only. The 
foundation of kinship was not birth, but worship. From 

* Agnatio. 



232 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

the same source came the right of property. The de- 
ceased ancestor, or family deity, took possession of the 
soil. The altar must not be disturbed. Thus the soil 
came to be the property of the family. 

On the worship of the dead, too, depended the right 
of succession. The son, not the daughter, inherits, be- 
cause the son alone can perform the rites of household 
worship. Thus our author goes on step by step, and 
traces the genesis of the whole framework of Greek 
and Roman society to this source. The gens (whence 
comes our patrician idea of gentle blood) was nothing 
but the family still holding to its primitive organization 
and unity ; the phratry- was a group of families, with its 
worship founded on that of the domestic religion ; the 
tribe was a group of pJiratries ; the city was a group of 
tribes. The city (civitas) was a religio-political associa- 
tion of tribes and families ; the urhs^ the place of assem- 
bly, the dwelling, the sanctuary. 

The founding of a city was a religious act. The 
founder of a city was one who by his prayers and rites 
called the gods and fixed them in the new sanctuary. 
Pater u^Jneas, the hero of the ^neid, is in reality a 
religious pilgrim, or " pilgrim father." He is not a free- 
booter, nor a profane and secular adventurer. He is 
a holy person, a high-priest, bearing the gods of Troy 
to their new home. He is the child of destiny ; fate 
guides his every step, and opens a path through all 
obstacles ; he is the instrument of the gods in found- 
ing Rome. The city followed the analogy of the family; 
it had its hearth, its ever-burning fire (the temple of 
Vesta), its penates, lares, demons, heroes, genii; its 
prayers and ceremonies, which were kept secret; its 
daily sacred meals, and its great feasts; in short, the 
civitas and religion were so confounded that it was im- 
possible to distinguish one from the other. The city 



THE ANCIENT CITY. 233 

father was, ipso facto^ the city priest, and the priest was 
king. Pater meant king. Law was a part of religion, 
and came from the gods. Law was immutable because 
divine. Patriotism, love of country, was love of the 
land of one's ancestors, fatherland, the land of the 
family altar, fire, tomb. The plebs, or plebeians, were 
foreign to the religious organization of the city and 
family ; they had at first no worship and no family. 
They had either never instituted the worship of ances- 
tors, or had lost it by neglect, or by crime, or by illegiti- 
mate descent. A plebeian was simply a man without a 
sacred fire. They could not dwell within the city, which 
was sacred. They dwelt outside, " without hearth or 
home." They had no father, or religious chief, no 
hearth, and no marriage, — that which the hearth estab- 
lished being forbidden them ; hence the patricians said 
of the plebeians, Connubia promiscua habent, more fera- 
rum, " They have promiscuous intercourse, like beasts." 
They had no property rights, no law, and no justice. 
They were a despised and abject class, out of the pale 
of society ; their very touch impure. 

The term "people" denoted a very different thing 
from that indicated by the word plebs. Populus was an 
assembl}^ of curies or pJiratries ; and there were groups 
of (/elites. Populus then was genteel. The progress of 
revolution was, first the suppression of political royalty ; 
next, the destruction of primogeniture and dismember- 
ment of the gens ; next, the enfranchisement of clients ; 
last, the plebeians — gradually acquiring wealth, and a 
sort of aristocracy and a religion of their own, eagerly 
adopting Oriental systems, like Buddhism,* when swept 
that way by floating tides of population — entered into 
the city, sometimes sword in hand, driving out the 

* Do we not see in this an explanation of the wonderful likeness of 
Romanism and Buddhism? 



234 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

patricians, sometimes by peaceable means. This, at 
Rome, was from 700 to 500 b. c. Thus at Rome there 
were two peoples. The plebeians did not obey the 
senatus-consulta^ and the patricians did not obey the 
plehiscita. It was a long and gradual process, b}^ which 
the antagonism between these two peoples was obliter- 
ated, and they were at last formed into one people. 

Thus our author shows that the whole framework of 
Roman society was founded on the worship of the dead. 
In reality, it was built up by the dead, through their 
direct, incessant, almost omnipresent influence and con- 
trol. They were the architects of the elaborate struc- 
ture. The same religion which had founded society ,"" 

.... gave man his character It showed men 

gods everywhere, — little gods, gods easily irritated and 
malevolent. It crushed man with the fear of always 
having gods against him, and left him no liberty in his 
acts. His house was for him what a temple is for 
us. He finds there his worship and his gods. His 
fire is a god; the walls, the doors, the threshold are 
gods ; the boundary marks which surround his fields 
are also gods. The tomb is an altar, and his ancestors 
are divine beings. Each one of his daily actions is a 
rite ; his whole day belongs to his religion. MoTning 
and evening he invokes his fire, his penates, and his an- 
cestors ; in leaving his house he addresses a prayer to 
them. Every meal is a religious act which he shares 
with his domestic divinities. He leaves his house, and 
can hardly take a step without meeting some sacred ob- 
ject — either a chapel, or a place formerly struck by 
lightning, or a tomb. Sometimes he must step back and 
pronounce a prayer ; sometimes he must turn his eyes 
and cover his face, to avoid the sight of some ill-boding 
object. Every day he sacrifices in his house ; every 
month in his curia; several months in the year with his 



THE ANCIENT CITY. 235 

gens, or tribe. Above all these gods he must worship 
those of the city. There are in Rome more gods than 
citizens. He offers sacrifices to thank the gods; he 
offers them, and by far the greater number, to appease 

their wrath He has a multitude of festivals for 

the dead because he is afraid of them. He never leaves 
his house without looking to see if any bird of bad 
augury appears. There are words which he dare not 

pronounce for his life He steps out of his house 

always with the right foot first. He has his hair cut 
only during the full moon. He carries amulets upon 
his person. He covers the walls of his house with magic 
inscriptions against fire. He knows of formulas for 
avoiding sickness, and of others for curing it ; but he 
must repeat them twenty-seven times, and spit in a cer- 
tain fashion at each repetition This Roman whom 

we present here is not the man of the people, the feeble- 
minded man, whom mysery and ignorance have made 
superstitious. We are speaking of the patrician, the 
noble, powerful, and rich man. 

Such was the effect of this system, where in an im- 
pressive sense " death reigned," with a reign not of love 
but of fear. Men " were all their lifetime in bondage 
through feav of death," that is, of the dead. 

Gods, heroes, dead men, claimed a material worship 
from man,- and he paid them the debt to keep them 
friendly, and, still more, not to make enemies of them. 
Man counted but little on their friendship. They were 
envious, irritable gods, without attachment or friend- 
ship for man, and willingly at war with him. Neither 
did the gods love man, nor did man love his gods. He 
believed in their existence, but would have wished that 
they did not exist. He feared even his domestic and 
national gods, and was continually in fear of being be- 
trayed by them. His great inquietude was lest he might 



fjMtmxy 



236 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

incur their displeasure. He was occupied all his life in 
appeasing them. 

An impression exists with many minds, that the Bible, 
especially the Old Testament, is gloomy and despotic. 
It is therefore proper to give prominence to this picture 
of ancient classic civilization, as so impartially depicted 
by De Coulanges, who cannot be suspected of writing 
with a theological bias. 

In fact, Israel was the only nation in which the sanc- 
tions of their religious and civil law were expressly tem- 
poral only, and in which it was possible to have " hope 
toward God that there should be a resurrection both of 
the just and of the unjust." In Israel, at last, the wor- 
ship of the dead had been successfully barred out. 
Everywhere else on earth there was despotism in 
this life, and a formidable terrorism respecting the fu- 
ture. There is much in the classic civilization that is 
beautiful ; much that is strong, politic, worldly-wise ; 
especially if we include the systems of philosophy, the 
mysteries, science, art, literature, jurisprudence. The 
Empire was despotic, but it was preferable to anarchy 
or to barbarism. But spiritualists will all admit that the 
great cosmocratic architects had not succeeded in making 
men happy. Far from it. The world was very unhappy. 
And a tone of something near akin to despair breathes 
through the poetry and the music, and the art and 
science, yes, the philosophy and religion of the world. 
The fullness of times had come for the deliverer to ap- 
pear. And both on earth and in higher realms there 
was a state of suspense, an expectation of some great 
event. 



THE mCAHNATION. 237 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE INCARNATION. 

TO those spiritualists who admit that the soul is older 
than the body, the idea of the Incarnation ceases to 
present any insuperable obstacles. The question whether 
it is miraculous or not, is rather a question about words. 
All spiritualists believe in miracles, provided a miracle 
'be defined to be an event occurring by spiritual agency 
through some law of nature by us not understood. In 
this sense all spiritualists may unite with Mr. Home in 
saying, " The account of Jesus' birth is the chief marvel 
in all history." * 

Nor is the question dependent on the prior question 
of the divinity or humanity of Jesus. All Christians 
believe in the proper humanity of Jesus ; and although 
spiritualists generally go no further than that, they may 
believe that he was of celestial origin, or, in other words, 
that his birth was the result of a true and proper incar- 
nation. In truth, are not spiritualists, on their own 
conceded principles, logically conducted to this result? 
They concede not only that Jesus was a medium, but 
that he was the most powerful medium that has yet 
lived on earth. They admit the purity of his life, the 
sincerity of his testimon}-, and the devotion and disinter- 
ested benevolence of his deeds. On their own principles, 
therefore, he would be in sympathy with the highest 
order of spirits, and any communications from the un- 

* Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism, p. 84. 



238 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

seen, through him, would be reliable ; it would be safe 
to accept them, unless clearly repugnant to our highest 
intuitions of reason and conscience. If, then, Jesus, 
viewed simply as a man, as indicated in his very common 
title Son of Man, testifies to his own former celestial 
existence, that testimony will be, with all consistent 
spiritualists, conclusive, unless they can show it repug- 
nant to reason and conscience. 

Now, it is to be borne in mind that . the belief in a 
celestial pre-existence was very ancient and wide-spread, 
and was entertained by some if not most of Christ's 
hearers, particularly among the Pharisees. Can there 
be any doubt what meaning such hearers, and in fact all 
his hearers, would attach to a declaration like this, for 
example, " I came down from heaven, not to do mine 
own will, but the will of him that sent me"? It may 
be replied here, that some of his hearers murmured, 
saying, " Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose 
mother and father we know ; how is it then that he saith, 
' I came down from heaven ' ? " 

This however, our spiritualist reader will please take 
notice, would only show that some of Christ's hearers did 
not believe in the soul's pre-existence, — not that they 
did not understand him as asserting his belief of it. It 
is well known that the Sadducees (and perhaps others) 
did not believe in this or any other spiritual tenet. ' 

The very fact that they murmured shows that Jesus 
did affirm his own heavenly origin. Hence, instead of 
retracting the statement, or qualifying it as if they had 
misunderstood him, he proceeds to repeat it four times 
over, in slightly different forms. " This is the bread 
that cometh down from heaven." "I am the living 
bread that came down from heaven." And when some 
still murmured, he said, " Doth this offend you ? And 
what if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where 



THE INCARNATION. 239 

he was before ? " Surely, if there is any meaning in 
language, spiritualists cannot doubt what impression he 
meant to convey. And as if to prevent the possibility 
of misconstruction, he presently adds: "I proceeded 
forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but 
he sent me." There are many intimations of this kind 
which we are obliged to pass without mention. But in 
the seventeenth chapter of Jolin we have that most 
beautiful prayer, in which the deepest emotions of his 
heart, in prospect of immediate suffering, find utterance : 
"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own 
self with the glor}'' which I had with thee before the 
world was. . . . Father, I will that they also whom thou 
hast given me be with me where I am : that they may 
behold my glory, which thou hast given me : for thou 
lovedst me before the foundation of the world." 

Consider now the accumulation of evidence as to the 
credibility of this testimony on the universally admitted 
principles of spiritualism. Jesus was a good man, of 
pure and elevated spirit and life ; he was the most dis- 
tinguished medium known to history ; he was speaking 
in the very act of prayer, in the so near prospect of 
martyrdom, that it is almost like his dying hour. Must 
not his utterance be accepted as true, unless we can 
show very strong intrinsic reasons for discrediting it ? 

And what is it after all ? It is a simple question of 
fact. It is not a question of miracle, in the obnoxious 
sense of the violation of all laws of nature. It is simply 
and solely a question of fact : Did Jesus enjoy a glorious 
celestial existence in the heavenly fatherland ; and had 
he been sent on a mission of love ; and was he about 
to return? That he asserted this is clear. Could 
he be deceived ? — for that he would deceive, no true 
spiritualist will for a moment imagine possible. Could 
he be deceived? That would imply that the spirits 



240 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

communicating through him were low and deceptive ; 
and that would imply that he himself was low, and in 
sympathy with such ; for this is a cardinal principle of 
spiritualism. But it is conceded he was good and pure, 
and in sympathy with the highest range of spiritual ex- 
istences, and was also in the highest exercise of devo- 
tional and self-sacrificing emotions. It follows that only 
elevated and truthful spirits would be attracted to him. 
He could not, then, be deceived on a simple question of 
fact. Is there, then, anything repugnant to our reason 
or highest moral sense, in the idea that a celestial being 
should be sent on a mission of love into this world ? Is 
there anything wrong in that ? Is there anything im- 
moral, unjust, cruel, or in any way revolting ? If not, 
then there is no conceivable intrinsic reason for rejecting 
his testimony, at least on spiritualistic grounds. We will 
suppose it conceded. We will suppose all spiritualists 
in this particular to agree with the school of M. Kardec : 
that the birth of Christ was a true and proper incarna- 
tion. He came on a mission of love. Such a birth, even 
on humanitarian grounds, was a grand event. 

A unit was subtracted from the sum of celestial being, 
and added to that of terrestrial. A star of first magni- 
tude in that upper firmament descended below their 
horizon. A " glory " suddenly ceased to shine in the 
bright galaxies of the empyrean. One who had stood 
high, one who had exercised a great influence, one through 
whom the sympathies, thoughts, wishes of the Father 
had found expression, was suddenly absent. He had 
quaffed a more potent cup than that of the fabled Lethe. 
He had emptied himself of that native plenitude, im- 
poverished himself of that exuberant wealth, humbled 
himself from that antecedent exaltation. He could not 
do this unobserved. He could not wisely do it without 
preparation. The fullness of times must be reached in 



THE INCARNATION. 241 

heaven as well as on earth. All the principalities and 
powers of all those wide realms must see the misery of 
man, and his need of help. 

In truth, such was the aspect of earthly affairs, and 
such the effect of the measures culminating in this em- 
bassy, that the public sentiment, so to speak, of the 
upper realms was flowing strongly in one direction, so 
that when the great transformation was achieved, the 
humiliation effected before their eyes, — when they saw 
such a glorious form sown in relative dishonor, such 
power sown in weakness, such undecaying vitality sown 
in decay, such a spiritual corporeity sown in animal 
organism ; in short, when they beheld one of the most 
illustrious of their order lying a helpless infant, of burn- 
able parentage, in a stable, they were filled with wonder 
and enthusiasm. And when the glory of the Lord shone 
round about on the shepherds, and the angel of the Lord 
said, " Fear not ; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of 
great joy, which shall be to all the people ; for unto you 
is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is 
Christ the Lord ; and this shall be a sign unto you : ye 
shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling-bands and 
lying in a manger ;" — then immediately there was with 
the " angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising 
God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
peace, good will toward men." The expression, " mul- 
titude of the heavenly host," — nlridog OTQming ovgavlov, 
— is very impressive and very beautiful. And it is espe- 
cially worthy of thought, that in all this transcendent 
scene there is no element of menace. 

In elevated conceptions of this general kind, all true 
spiritualists can sympathize ; and they furnish high pos- 
sible or probable reasons why the testimony of Jesus 
should be accepted, in the absence of all reasons to the 
contrary. And there is also another conceivable general 
16 



242 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

reason, namely, to afford to the race a fresh demonstration 
of its own celestial origin and immortality. That ancient 
and ennobling conception was growing dim, and with it 
the sublime faith of a future immortality. See, then, 
how that faith is reinforced by the fact testified to by this 
faithful witness. In speaking for himself, he speaks for 
his race. He is the second Adam. His favorite title 
for himself, in later years, was " Son of Man." He was 
not only a man, but the man, the ideal of humanity. 
Humanity is not a thing merely of birth. The soul is 
older than the body. The race is older than its environ- 
ment. It was because anterior to birth he was in truth 
one, and the purest and noblest one of the celestial hu- 
man race, that he is rightly termed Son of Man, — the 
child of the race, the perfect embodiment of its original 
celestial character. In natural science, whatever is 
ascertained, structurally, of an individual of a species, 
is ascertained of the species, A single pliocene fossil 
human skull implies the existence of the human spe- 
cies in the pliocene epoch. If that single skull be of 
average dimensions, it would indicate that the race at 
that epoch was of average intelligence. A single well- 
ascertained case of ape-evolution — supposing such a 
thing possible — would be accepted by all evolutionists 
as conclusive of the derivation of the species. So the 
resurrection of Jesus has been universally conceded to 
carry with it the resurrection of the race. 

On the same principle, the celestial pre-existence of 
Jesus, considered as a man, involves the celestial pre- 
existence of the species. And whatever weight we 
attach to his testimony to his own origin as Son of Man, 
we should attach to it, hy implication, as to our own 
origin. 



THE ORDEAL. 243 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE ORDEAL. 

WHEN you see the distant dome of snow from the 
environs of Geneva, you think you have seen 
Mont Blanc ; but when you reach the hotel at Cha- 
mounix, and gaze upward, you feel as though you had 
never before beheld this " monarch of mountains." He 
is never quite the same in any two successive hours of 
the day — in the cold pallor preceding dawn, in the 
sheen of noon, or in the fading rose-tints and mysterious 
spectral beauties of twilight. From every new quarter 
of the compass — north, east, south, west — you obtain 
a new revelation, till you feel at last that you can never, 
at any one time or place, see more than one side, one 
aspect, of the grand old summit. So it is with Him of 
whose great white throne of judgment we might almost 
think Mont Blanc the fittest emblem. We can never 
see but one side, one aspect, of hia character ; and how- 
ever beautiful or majestic it may be, we know that there 
are many directions from which we may approach Him, 
many distances nearer or more remote, many times of 
day as it were, — morning or noon or evening, — from 
each of which we have a new revelation of his glory. 
In this chapter we have only one such view, — a view, 
as it were, before the dawn, through the spectral mists 
of twilight, brightening into day. 

That Jesus was a medium, all spiritualists admit ; that 
as such he was liable to the assaults of tempting spirits, 



244 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

they also concede. Dr. Crowell, quoting MarkV state- 
ment, " the spirit driveth him into the wilderness," says, 
" This is a clear case, if not of possession, at least of 
obsession." * In this, however, he errs, for Luke says 
that, " being full of the Holy Spirit, he returned from 
Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness." 
He concedes, however, in the fullest manner, that there 
was a real attack made upon him by " dark spirits." 
" This experience of Jesus is a conspicuous lesson, teach- 
ing us the necessity of resisting evil influences with all 
the determination and persistence of our nature ; it is 
also a conspicuous example of victory obtained over 
these influences through the exercise of a determined 
will." In the same connection he cites that most im- 
portant passage (Ephesians vi. 12) where Paul speaks of 
the cosmocratic powers of wickedness. There is every 
reason to believe that Dr. Crowell's sentiments on this 
point would not be objected to by any class or school of 
spiritualists ; and this is certainly a fact of great impor- 
tance, for in the passage cited Paul expressly says that 
those wicked spirits are in heaven, and the terms used, 
" principalities and powers," indicate beings of high offi- 
cial rank and dignity, like those Daniel calls " chief 
princes." f Now Paul was a medium, and had had 
visions, and says expressly that, lest he should be ex- 
alted above measure by the abundance of the revela- 
tions, " an angel of Satan " was permitted to buffet him. 
Spiritualists admit the existence of ranks and grades 
in the spirit-world. There is " a heavenly hierarchy," 
they tell us, " to whom are submitted the vast interests 
and plans for guidance of the myriads of millions em- 
braced within their realm of supervision The wis- 

* Primitive Christianity and Modern Spiritualism, Vol. I. p. 323. 
f IJqos lag dcQX^S, nQOg i&g i^ovalug, ngbg xoiig xoa/ioxgdiogag row 
axorovg roiiov, nqbg rd nvsvfiaxiKdi. trig novrjglag iv tolg inovgavloig. 



THE ORDEAL. 245 

dom of the archangelic sphere guides the less progressed 
unfoldings of the angelic, which is the first below it ; 
and thus down and through all departments." * But 
how can spiritualists be sure, consistently with their 
own principles, that all division of opinion and contro- 
versy is confined to the lower grades ? Is it on the tes- 
timony of spirits through modern mediums ? But why 
should modern mediums be infallible ? They are not ; 
it is a first principle. And why are they more reliable 
than ancient mediums, like Daniel and Paul ? Daniel 
shows that controversy existed among the chief princes 
or archangels. Paul, a powerful medium, speaks of the 
prince of the power (or army) of the air, and calls him 
the God of this world. Jesus, admitted by all spiritual- 
ists to be the most perfect medium that ever lived, calls 
him " the prince of this world." 

How can spiritualists, consistently with their own prin- 
ciples, set aside this testimony through ancient mediums 
by that of modern mediums, when they admit that the 
latter are often deceived ? " More than half their com- 
munications arc impositions," says Dr. Crowell. The 
Theosophic spiritualists hold that " the laws of polar- 
ity do not permit a pure disembodied spirit to manifest 
itself through a medium of evil life, or in the society 
of impure investigators. To such magnets, impure influ- 
ences only are attracted ; and we firmly believe that the 
whole series of physical phenomena, from the rappings 
to the materializations, is simply a manifestation of the 
power of the souls of the mediums themselves, or of dis- 
embodied souls destined to annihilation." 

Pages might be filled with quotations from eminent 

spiritualists bearing on this vital point. Let any candid 

spiritualist weigh well the testimony of Mr. and Mrs. S. C. 

Hall, Mr. William Howitt, Mrs. M. S. Cooper, Hudson 

* American Spiritual Magazine, Vol. I. pp. 362-365. 



246 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

Tuttle, D. Home, and others, and say whether it is safe 
and consistent to make modern mediums (even were they 
unanimous) supreme on this point. But consistent spir- 
itualists will remember the teaching of the eminent 
modern seer, Swedenborg, already cited. " Before the 
coming of the Lord, hell had grown up, so as to infest 
the angels of heaven, .... not only confusing the last 
and lowest, but assaulting the middle heaven, which 
would have gone to destruction unless the Lord had 
protected it." If, then, modern mediums are not unan- 
imous, — if they are not more reliable than ancient, — 
if the spirits communicating through the prophets and 
apostles, and above all through their Master, are en- 
titled to confidence, — how can spiritualists consistently 
deny that controversy may have struck through the 
very highest grades, thrones, dominions, principalities, 
and powers ? 

Laying aside the gross monkish and magical notions 
associated with the word " Satan," which means simply 
an adversary or antagonist, and with the word " devil," 
which means simply a slanderer or false accuser, let all 
candid spiritualists rise to the conception of a great in- 
tellectual and moral conflict between Jesus on the one 
hand, and a lofty spirit of consummate ability on the 
other, to see whether he would be stanch to the prin- 
ciple of self-denial, truth, and implicit trust in God, or 
whether he would compromise with the ordinary prin- 
ciples of worldly wisdom and selfish expediency. There 
is a consistency and congruity in such a conception to 
a meditative mind. The "fulness of time" had come 
of which seers had spoken from Eden down. Into these 
things angels had desired to look. Celestial intellects, 
from the highest to the lowest rank, had watched each 
pregnant intimation, from the first great declaration, 
" Thou shalt bruise his heel, he shall bruise thy head," 



THE ORDEAL. 247 

to the present moment. The designation of the line 
of Shem ; the call of Abraham ; the choice of Isaac, of 
Jacob, of Judah, of David ; the splendid outbuists of 
Isaiah and other seers; the designation of time four hun- 
dred and ninety years from Cyrus's decree ; the place, 
Bethlehem Ephrata ; the title, Messiah, Christ, Anointed ; 
the sublime outburst over Bethlehem's plains; — all these 
things, and a thousand others, show that the unrolling 
of the mighty panorama was not only noticed by powers 
on high, but studied with the intensest emotion. Now 
the crisis of the universe is reached. Jesus is physically 
weak ; his antagonist is strong. Jesus is mortal ; his 
opponent one of the immortals. Jesus is a member of 
an exiled race, in some manner not fully revealed, under 
' ban of the empire ; while his assailant is an empj'^real 
prince, leader of the haute noblesse of the skies. Jesus 
was in the wilderness, in circumstances not unlike those 
of Israel of old when fed with manna, or those of Eli- 
jah when sustained by angel viands. The temptations 
recorded are evidently but a small part of those that 
occupied forty days and nights, — samples as it were, 
or specimens. 

It could occasion no great surprise to Jesus, long 
fasting and fainting in the wilderness, that a bright and 
beautiful form should address him, seemingly a friend, 
and ask him to perform a miracle akin to the feeding 
Israel with manna. The precise words recorded in the 
gospels may have been used, and there may have been 
other words of similar import, if the temptation was 
urged repeatedly during the long fast. So, too, it would 
have excited in Jesus no surprise to find himself caught 
away (as Ezekiel was, and other prophets) and placed 
on a pinnacle of the temple, where he could gaze 
down on the holy place and the assembled worship- 
pers. Should he suddenly descend as with rushing of 



248 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

cherubic wings and Shekinah glory, it would be, full 
well he knew, the very sign his people were expecting. 
How strong, then, the impulse to yield to that persua- 
sive voice, " Cast thyself down hence, for it is written, 
He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and 
in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time 
thou dash thy foot against a stone." These identical 
words may have been spoken, and others also of similar 
import. We can easily see the consistency and natu- 
ralness of the representation ; we can understand that 
there was a real and formidable temptation ; but how is 
it with respect to the other part of the ordeal. Can we 
see that that also is in a sense natural, and yet a real 
test or trial ? If we regard the tempter as a state 
prisoner broke loose from confinement, we can not ; but 
if we regard him as a great political and official antag- 
onist, then we can form a conception of a temptation 
both natural on a higher plane of thought, and most 
formidably real. 

Nor need we even paraphrase the words of the gos- 
pel narrative, but we may suppose many other words 
spoken in the course of so long a period, for it is ex- 
plicitly stated that he was under temptation forty days. 
We are almost compelled to suppose other words were 
used of which these would be the complement and cli- 
max ; and though we may not presume to reproduce 
them, it is not difficult to conjecture ranges of thought 
which would have been appropriate and natural. That 
Jesus was shown all the kingdoms of the world and the 
glory of them, is expressly stated ; and it is a very large, 
a very comprehensive statement, however it was accom- 
plished, whether by clairvoyance, or trance, or vision, 
or by some means to us unknown. 

But to see those kingdoms, and the glory of them, 
suggests certainly the possibility that something of th^ir 



THE ORDEAL. 249 

history was disclosed to him. As a case in point, recall 
the visions of Daniel. How wonderfully the chart of 
future history was unrolled before his mind ! A still 
more wonderful chart of past history may have been 
unrolled before the mind of Jesus, and that history so 
represented as to be made to seem glorious, and to seem 
glorious to him. If so, then all the darker and more de- 
grading features of the successive world-empires would 
be softened or hid, all the brighter brought out promi- 
nently. This would, in effect, be a tacit vindication of 
his own administration by the prince of this world, yet 
so skilfully managed as not to seem apologetic ; it would 
be simply putting the best construction on the great 
ethnic governments, and philosophies, and religious, so 
as to make them seem attractive to such a mind as that 
of Jesus. There was time enough during the forty days 
for such a proceeding. 

In Daniel's visions world-empires were exhibited as 
wild beasts ; or, if represented in human form, it was 
with the idea of decadence — gold, silver, brass, iron, 
clay. To Jesus' mind, naturally, a different impression 
would be given — the impression of improvement, of 
progress ; decadence, perhaps, in some respects, but im- 
provement in other respects, such as philosophy, science, 
arts, and laws. Instead of depicting the Roman empire 
as a nameless monster, terrible and dreadful exceed- 
ingly, it would be represented as Agrippa described it in 
his celebrated speech deprecating revolt, or as compara- 
tive theology sometimes describes it now. The prince 
of this world might say that b}'" the confession of Israel's 
own prophets the covenant people had been more cor- 
rupt than the great world-empires around them ; and if 
the Hebrew system ought not to be held responsible for 
the corruption of the nation, neither ought the ethnic 
latVs and religions to be held responsible for the corrup- 



250 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

tions of the world-empires. The fault was in the mate- 
rial, in the masses themselves, — tides of selfish minds 
continually coming in and lowering the standard. But 
as to the existing world-empire, we can readily see what 
representations could have been made to such a mind 
as that of Jesus. 

Suppose for a moment, (if we may venture so far 
merely for illustration's sake,) a strain of argument 
somewhat like this, as forming a part of the temptations 
filling the forty days. Behold the empire of Rome, and 
compare it with either of the great empires of the past. 
Its territory extends three thousand miles from the At- 
lantic to the Caspian, and stretches from the Hebrides 
on the north to the burning deserts of Africa ; yet it is 
everywhere traversed by paved roads, on which the com- 
merce of the world may move with speed and safety, and 
all diverse nationalities are thus brought into neighbor- 
hood with each other, so that they can be combined in 
one political system. Roman citizenship, the slow growth 
of centuries, has extended through the empire its priv- 
ileges and immunities to individuals, to cities, and to 
provinces, thus unifying the diverse populations with 
common political rights ; and- the policy of the city ever 
has been, by a wise mingling of clemency and resistless 
force, to tame the rebellious and protect the submissive. 
Her polic}^ cruel, barbarous, remorseless ? Her cruelties 
have at least been well applied. The conqueror ought 
to execute at once whatever cruelties are essential, so as 
to have no occasion to renew them ; otherwise he must 
be always ready, knife in hand. 

Largely considered, imperial civilization breathes a 
sentiment of regard for law. Compare the oral law of 
Israel, which has been evolved since the captivity, with 
Roman jurisprudence evolved in the same period. On 
the one hand narrowness, unsocial and petty restrictions 



THE ORDEAL. 251 

and absurdities ; on the other, sublime conceptions of 
law as embracing the universe, — a boundless common- 
wealth and city, common alike to gods and mortals ; and 
as in earthly states particular laws govern particular 
relationships of kindred tribes, so, it is conceived by 
Rome's best jurists, in the nature of things, does a uni- 
versal law far more resplendent regulate the affairs of 
that universal city where gods and men compose one 
vast association. It is this noble conception of law as an 
eternal principle governing the entire universe, wisely 
commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong, 
which is the proudest characteristic of Roman civiliza- 
tion, and which will be its best legacy to future ages. 

Consider, moreover, how this superb empire is further 
assimilated by the diffusion of the arts and sciences, 
preserved by secret orders and mj^steries through ages 
of violence, and by the almost universal prevalence 
among the wealth}^ and educated classes of two such 
languages as the Greek and Latin. What could be done 
for the ultimate literature, art, and science of humanit}^ 
with such a language as Hebrew, excellent for the time 
of Moses, and for the peculiar provincial existence of 
Israel ? What, with such characters as the Egyptian hie- 
roglyphics, or the arrowhead letters and perishable clay 
tablets of Assyria ? And to whom do the Hebrew scrip- 
tures owe their widest diffusion ? To Alexander and 
the Ptolemies, and Alexandrian translators ! And has 
not all this been in reality a preparatory work for the 
great Deliverer so widely expected, — the Star that 
should rise out of Jacob, — the Anointed One, — him 
whom Eastern sages came to seek, saying, " Where is 
he that is bom King of the Jews, for we have seen his 
star in the east, and are come to worship him? " 

Yet, great as Rome is, and important as her attain- 
ments, there is need of some great intervention to pre- 



252 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

vent her following the course of former empires. The 
religions of the world meet in Rome, enfeebled by their 
very multiplicity, — decaying, — undermined by scepti- 
cism. There is a wide-spread unrest, deepening to de- 
spair, — an inarticulate yearning for a better system than 
man has ever known. A yearning for whom ? For whom 
does thy prophetic instinct whisper ? For whom but for 
thee, desire of nations, seed of Abraham, in whom all 
the nations of the earth shall be blessed ! 

Great indeed have been and are the corruptions and 
abuses of religion, and of all social institutions. But it 
was inevitable. It was the fault of men, not of unseen 
powers. With all their admitted faults and abuses, the 
great religions of the world have contained more truth 
than error, and have been, on the whole, useful to man- 
kind. It is for thee to meet the demand of the suffer- 
ing, sorrowing nations. It is for thee to seize the 
auspicious epoch and realize its possibilities. All the 
indications of the age, all the intimations of prophecy, 
point to this as the time for some divine intervention.- 
The circumstances of thy birth, and training, and his- 
tory, to the present moment, designate thee to the re- 
sponsible undertaking. 

There are in Israel reserves of unsuspected power. 
There are adaptations and qualifications of peculiar 
valae. Above all there is a slumbering volcano of re- 
ligious enthusiasm of almost infinite momentum. Yet 
behold how the nation is' paralyzed, and its power 
nullified by intense party-spirit, ambition, and the 
usual corruptions of society. The Pharisee, Sadducee, 
Essene, Zealot, Herodian, Samaritan, are incapable of 
uniting ; yet neither can carry the whole body of the 
nation. They sway back and forth like hosts in battle, 
with spears and helmets interlocked. How, then, canst 
thou effect the great and responsible task appointed 



THE ORDEAL. 253 

thee? Is it not clear as the noonday sim that thou 
must secure the co-operation of the nation, or of some 
one at least of the great influential parties? Of the 
Essenes, harmless fanatics, nothing need be said. They 
are and will be a mere cipher. The Sadducees, amiable 
voluptuaries, cling closer to the letter of the law, but 
their conservatism overleaps due bounds, and denies the 
existence of invisible powers, without a full belief in 
whom no high enthusiasm, religious, political, or military, 
is possible. The Pharisees, stanch reformers once, 
might perhaps be fired with patriotic enthusiasm, if the 
secret springs of action were touched with skill and 
tact ; and through them, and in connection with them, 
the great Zealot or ultra-patriotic party might be 
swayed, on whose enthusiasm all must ultimately de- 
pend. Thus one might propitiate the rulers, while 
cementing upon himself the loyalty of the tribes, lead- 
ing them on to conquest, not of Canaan, but of the 
Eternal City. 

Think not that the people are unprepared for such a 
movement. Say not that their spirit is far from pure ; 
that it is proud, ambitious, sensual ; that it would but 
build up another despotic empire, to become corrupt in 
turn like those that have preceded ; and that Israel must 
first be humbled, purified, brought back to simple faith 
and obedience. Say not Messiah must reign only by pure 
truth and goodness, without admixture of guile, — ideas 
natural to the artless inexperience of youth, — conceptions 
beautiful in themselves, but impracticable and visionary. 
If men were good, princes might reign by abstract truth 
and right ; but men are wicked, and princes are not obliged 
to such strictness, because it would do harm rather than 
good. All generous enthusiasts begin with such ideal 
aspirations ; but, alas! they find the realities of life are 
too stern, too inflexible, to yield to poetic fancies. Men 



254 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

must be dealt with as they are. Good and evil are 
inseparably conjoined in social institutions, — inextrica- 
bly mingled and blended. Abstract right, absolute be- 
nevolence, are in practical life inoperative and void. As 
well preach humility to behemoth as to yonder self-satis- 
fied Pharisee. What can the easy-living, wealthy, lux- 
urious Sadducee know of disinterestedness ? What can 
the crafty Herodian, the subtle Greek, versed by na- 
ture and by practice in all the mazes of diplomacy, know 
of simple sincerity, which to him must seem like the 
height of folly ? What can the iron-hearted Roman 
know of pure truth ? Abstractions are out of the ques- 
tion. Can there be found one single individual in the 
nation that knows what disinterestedness is, or would 
recognize it if he saw it ? 

What would be the result of appealing only to such 
motives ? It would defeat the very object aimed at. 
Thou wouldst arouse distrust, suspicion, jealousy, par- 
tisan rancor, resentment. All parties would combine ; 
thou wouldst be crushed in a moment, before having 
time even to begin. Enterprises like this demand time. 
Great mental and moral changes must be gradual. To 
give time for gradual change, there must be power. 
One must be able to command in order to instruct ; to 
coerce in order to convince ; and to attain power, one 
must have at least a place to stand on, and friend's, fol- 
lowers, partisans. The fine gold of truth does not be- 
come current in ingots. It must be alloyed, hardened. 
It must be coined. It must bear the stamp of Caesar.. 
Every consideration of expediency and of duty suggests 
to deal warily and prudently with the rulers, so as not 
unnecessarily to excite their fears, rouse their prejudices, 
or threaten their privileges and emoluments. 

Many a promising light has been prematurely quenched 
by headlong fanaticism. Prudence is not insincerity. 



THE OEDEAL. 255 

Listen to the counsels of true expediency, — of mature 
experience. Learn something from one to whom is 
delegated the care of this world's empires, — a grave 
responsibility, often thankless, always arduous. Gladly 
would I shift the burden upon younger shoulders. If in 
thee I Ijehold my destined successor, gladly would I hail 
thy coming and smooth thy path to power, saying to 
thee as Saul said to thine ancestor: "And now I know 
well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the king- 
dom of Israel shall be established in thy hand." But 
till that appointed hour, is it too much to ask that 
thou wilt yield me that official homage David paid to 
Saul? All the kingdoms of this world are delivered 
unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give them. Let 
me then shed propitious influences around thy path, 
touch skilfully the springs of action, and guide the cur- 
rent of social thought and feeling. Let me influence 
not Israel only, but other nations, and guarantee success 
to thy noblest, most beneflcent designs. 

Such a line of argument was possible, or one much 
stronger than this. The defect of this statement is, not 
that it is more cogent than would be conceivably possible, 
but that it is probably weak and feeble in the extreme. 
And the great fact on which its whole cogency depended 
is, that the adversary made a direct and positive claim 
to delegated power over the kingdoms of this world, in 
circumstances such as to make it impossible that claim 
should be false. The entire reality of the ordeal de- 
pends on the fact that he knew, and that Jesus knew, 
that his claim was true. " All this power will I give 
thee, for that is delivered unto me (nnqudidoTUi), and to 
whomsoever I will I give it." * He uses the same word 
employed by Jesus where he says, " All things are de- 
livered unto me of my father " (naqBd6dij).-\ This claim 
* Luke iv. 6. t Matt. xi. 27. 



256 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

of delegated power Jesus does not dispute. He tacitly 
concedes it, as much as he did in a well-known instance 
in reference to rulers in the visible world, by saying, 
" Render unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's, and 
unto God the things that are God's." 

His reply scarce needs a paraphrase, would not even 
admit of it, had not the whole scene been so often mis- 
conceived. " Get thee behind me, adversary, for it is 
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him 
only shalt thou serve." This, in our view, is equivalent 
to saying, that for him to bend his mind into a receptive 
attitude ; were he to hear, inquire of, seek unto, accept 
counsel of any angel, or archangel, or other being, than 
the Living God, even to gain the dominion of the world, 
it would be idolatry. Thus contemplated, we see that 
the temptation was very real, very formidable, and of 
the same general nature that had proved fatal to Solo- 
mon and other great men in all ages : that is, to com- 
promise, — to do evil that good may come. He was 
tempted in that particular as we are, as public men are 
now, and he met the shock of temptation with the clear 
foresight of rejection, scorn, contempt, and cruel death. 
In making that decision, he virtually laid down his life. 



EEQENERATION. 257 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

EEGENERATION. 

^NE of the most suggestive passages in the life of 
Jesus, next to the temptation in the wilderness, is 
the conversation with Nicodemus. It seems to have 
occurred at a very early period, before the development 
of antagonism of the rulers. In fact, this would seem 
to be the first contact of the Pharisaic mind with him. 
Nicodemus says not, " Rabbi, I believe that thou art 
a prophet," but, " Master, we know that thou art a 
teacher sent from God, for no man can do these mira- 
cles which thoir doest except God be with him.') He 
has evidently been conversing with his brethren of the 
Sanhedrim ; he evidently speaks in the name of his 
class or order. If he has come privately, by night, it 
is not for fear, but from wise diplomacy, and to secure 
a time when Jesus would be uninterrupted. 

It is the first movement on this side the veil corre- 
sponding to that on the other side, when the tempter 
said, " The Pharisees will gladly welcome you as their 
leader, if you will spare for a time their prejudices." 
The highest, strongest, most influential, and on the 
whole most scriptural party here reaches out its hand 
and feels of Jesus. Nicodemus is friendly ; the party is 
friendly. This young ruler is selected because he is 
interested personally, and would for his own personal 
satisfaction enjoy the mission. Jesus understood this ; 
he know what ideas were stirring in men's minds ; he 
17 



258 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

knew what causes were operating, and what effects 
would follow from any supposable act. This was a 
move in an opening game of chess. He saw what 
counter-moves might be made, and what would follow 
from each. 

What conceptions, then, might Nicodemus have had 
naturally ? He had the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, 
and the Chaldee Paraphrase. He might naturally have 
read the first book of the Sibylline verses, a Jewish com- 
position then about a century and a half old, foretelling 
the coming and kingdom of Messiah. He was also prob- 
ably familiar with the Book of Enoch, of still older date, 
in part probably as old as the Maccabees, and of such 
" eloquence and poetic vigor " as to be capable of exert- 
ing a marked influence on the imagination of a gen- 
eration who supposed the scenes described to be im- 
pending. 

The great question of the age was the coming of Mes- 
siah ; the end of the world, or age ; the resurrection of 
the dead ; the judgment ; and the establishment of Mes- 
siah's glorious kingdom. Now these are exciting topics 
at any time. Every question connected with the sub- 
ject was discussed ; and besides minor divisions, the 
whole nation was divided into two great controversial 
parties or schools ; the Sadducees denjang the existence 
of angel or spirit, and of course denying the resurrec- 
tion. These great parties had fought it out on every 
point, and exhausted all their resources, and stood at 
bay ; neither party C^ould convince or conquer the other. 
Now comes Jesus. The Pharisees look at him. They 
say, " Here is our man ; here is a teacher sent from God. 
No man could do what he does unless God were with 
him ; we know it. Let Him speak, then ; let him take 
up our controvers}^ and put our antagonists to silence." 
Of course they would be ready to back him with all 



REGENERATION. 259 

their influence, and stand by him to the last. But there 
were two points to be considered. " Is he really what we 
think him to be, judging favorably by his deeds ? Is he 
really with us and of us, so that all the precious inter- 
ests of our law, handed down to us through so many 
ages of conflict and suffering, and for which we stand 
against Sadducean negation and Gentile idolatrous phi- 
losophy, will be safe — will not be shipwrecked through 
our incautious confidence ? He may be Messiah ; he is, 
we now feel almost certain. But if he be not fully in 
accord with the best intelligence and piety of the na- 
tion, — if he be not fully identified with us, — then he 
may be the predicted Antichrist. Let us be cautious ; 
let us feel our way ; let us be sure of our ground before 
committing ourselves." 

Then, besides, there were points on which their own 
minds were not clear ; and while approaching him for 
his party, Nicodemus might anticipate clearing up his 
own private questionings. What was to be the nature 
of the heavenly kingdom ? What was to be the exact 
nature of the resurrection ? Was it to be a restoration 
to a celestial mode of existence, as some supposed ; or 
was it to be a return to a terrestrial body of more per- 
fect health and vigor ? — and if so, how ? Would the 
righteous be reincarnate by natural birth, or would they 
appear in angelic corporeities ? Such are some of the 
questions which must of necessity have been rife in 
every thoughtful mind. But there were points even 
more difficult. How will it be with the righteous who 
are alive at the time of the great change ? If there is 
to be a palingenesia, a new heavens and earth, — if there 
is to be an immortal state, — how will the living right- 
eous make the transition ? Will they be translated like 
Enoch and Elijah, or will they die ? If not, — if (as 
many, perhaps most, supposed) there was to be a beatific 



260 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

change pass upon them, — what was that change, and 
what sort of a body and state would it produce ? Would 
they, as Isaiah seemed to imply, build houses and in- 
habit them ? Would they plant vineyards, and eat the 
fruit of them ? Would they bear children without pain- 
ful travail, and have numerous offspring ? 

If we would realize what must have been the condi- 
tion of the popular mind then, let us" think a moment 
what it is now, eighteen centuries after Pentecost, and 
in the midst of the education and science of the age. 
Let us read the writings of the English Millenna- 
rians, and reflect tjiat they represent views very widely 
prevalent, not merely in the Church of England, but 
in other communions throughout Christendom, — not 
merely among the ignorant, but among the most culti- 
vated and scholarly, — the Alfords, EUicotts, Langes, 
and Schaffs. Let us then glance at the less educated 
and scholarly, but equally sincere writings of the dif- 
ferent schools of Adventists, who are very numerous, 
and very much excited for and against the tenet of con- 
ditional immortality ; then glance at the writings of the 
New Church, at the writings of Edward Irving and 
others of what one may call the new New Church ; then 
consider the recent wide-spread agitation of the ques- 
tion of future retribution, in almost all denominations ; 
and to all this add the recent literature of spiritualism, 
and the negative attitude of materialistic science (a kind 
of modern Sadduceeism) ; and observe how in all these 
various classes of minds, embracing, first and last, nearly 
the whole of Christendom, the great questions at issue 
are closely connected with the resurrection, and the palin- 
genesia, or regeneration, — and we can see how it might 
or must have been in Jesus' day. If we cannot help dis- 
cussing themes of this sort, they could not. If we, with 
our boasted science, cannot agree, they could not. If 



REGENERATION. 261 

many conflicting theories now float in the public mind, 
— annihilation ; sleep ; reincarnation ; materialization ; 
resurrection at death ; resurrection pre-millennial ; res- 
urrection post-millennial, — the same theories, or the- 
ories of the same sort, were afloat then, held by some 
loosely, conjecturally, by others tenaciously, polemically, 
and felt uneasily by all to be oppressive by their very 
mystery. 

Notice the signs of this mental tension, — the visit 
of the eastern Magi to Jerusalem, and their inquiry, 
" Where is he that is born king of the Jews ? for we 
have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship 
him." Call to mind the agitation these words created 
in the court of Herod and in Jerusalem, and Herod's 
inquiry of chief priests and scribes where Messiah was 
to be born, and their, ready answer, " In Bethlehem, '\ 
and their citation of Micah v. 2 in proof. Consider the 
agitation caused by the proclamation of John the Bap- 
tist, " The kingdom of heaven is at hand," and his cita- 
tion of Isaiah xl. 3. "We see at every step a habit of 
studying the prophecies exactly like that of our advent- 
ists and millennarians to-day ; and we see all Jerusalem 
and all Judea streaming to the Jordan ; and promptly 
an embassy from the Sanhedrim waits on John, (not a 
correspondent of the Jerusalem Tribune, but a commit- 
tee of the Hebrew Senate,) saying : 

" Who art thou ? " 

His answer shows what was uppermost in everybody's 
mind. 

"I am not the Christ." 

" Art thou Elias ? " 

" I am not." 

They do not need to quote Malachi iv. 5 ; for it was 
as instinctive as breathing to think Elias "must first 
come and restore all things." 



v^ 



262 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

" Art thou that prophet ? " 

"No." 

They do not need for a similar reason to quote Deuter- 
onomy xviii. 15. 

" Who art thou ? That we may give some answer to 
those that sent us, what sayest thou of thyself? " 

We see the whole nation, rulers and all, on the qui 
vive. It will not do to have any one creating such an 
excitement around here and we not notice it. Who are 
you ?, What are you ? 

He answers by quoting Isaiah xl. 3. So we see the 
Bible was their daily bread. Prophecy was in the very 
air. Notice that little incident at the great camp-meeting 
on the Jordan, where John sees Jesus walking by, and 
says : 

" Behold the Lamb of God ! " 

There is a whole quarto in the five words. Next we 
see two rather rough-looking men meet each other in 
the crowd. They are fishermen from up the country. 
One says to the other : 

" We have found the Messiah ! " and he drags him 
off to see him. 

The next day, another encounter between two up- 
country people, or Galileans. One says : 

" We have found him of whom Moses in the law and 
the prophets did write — Jesus of Nazareth, Ben losef." 

Says the other : " Can any good come out of Naza- 
reth ? " 

Says the first : " Come and see." And he drags him off. 

All through Christ's life this state of mind reveals 
itself — this intentness, this absorption, this premonition 
of impending events of unknown grandeur. Does Jesus 
perform some striking act, like cleansing the temple 
(which, if we reflect, was a prodigious thing for a lay- 
man to do) ? The first question is, " What sign showest 



REGENERATTOlSr. 263 

thou unto us ? " They were thinking of the Shekinah 
glor}^ — THE siGlsr par excellence,, of which the national 
imagination was fulk 

Did he perform some unusually striking work of heal- 
ing ? " All men mused in their hearts if this be the 
Christ." 

Some said, " This is he." 

Some said, " Nay, he deceiveth the people." 

Herod hears of his deeds. " It is John, whom I have 
beheaded. He is risen from the dead." A specimen of 
one class of ideas of the resurrection. 

So when Jesus asks of his disciples, " Whom do men 
say that I am ? " the reply is : 

" Some say Elias ; others Jeremias, or one of the old 
prophets risen from the dead." That is, a reincarnation, 
a resurrection by natural birth. That was one of the 
notions afloat. 

And when Jesus has shown them the glory on the 
mount, as they come down they ask, " Why say the 
scribes Elias must first come?" And further on, " What 
shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the 
world?" It is the logical outcome of the entire ratio- 
cination of the period. This glorification (which now 
they doubted not was presently to burst forth on all) 
was the very thing. Everybody was looking for it. But 
how then about Elias, and the restitution ? And how 
about the living ? How were they to get through ? 
And how with all the other things prophesied ? Now 
all these ideas were not only naturally in Nicodemus's 
mind when he said, " Master, we know thou art a 
teacher come from God," but nothing short of a miracle 
could have prevented him from thinking about them. 
It was to ask questions about just such subjects he had 
come. 

Now Jesus knew just what he was thinking about, 



264 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

and just what he wanted to say. It did not need any- 
particular prophetic inspiration to know that. Any pro- 
found mind thoroughly posted on the ideas of his- own 
day would have known. Without paying any attention 
apparently to what his visitor says, without noticing his 
complimentary words, without waiting for him to pro- 
pound his curious inquiries, Jesus strikes directly at the 
point, — "Except a man be born again, he cannot see 
the kingdom of God." 

This gives his visitor an opening to ask the very thing 
he wanted to ask. " How can a man be born again when 
he is old ? Can he enter the second time into his moth- 
er's womb, and be born ? " 

This, as all spiritualists will see at a glance, is equiv- 
alent to the inquiry whether the doctrine of reincarna- 
tion then believed by many was really true ; and, if true, 
how it could be effected. 

" Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be 
born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the 
kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is 
flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 
•Marvel not that I said unto thee. Ye must be born 
again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou 
hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it 
Cometh, and whither it goeth : so is every one that is 
born of the Spirit." 

" How can these things be ? '* 

" Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these 
things ? Verily, verily, I say unto thee. We speak that 
we do know, and testify that we have seen ; and ye re- 
ceive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, 
and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of 
heavenly things ? " . 

Now, to a hearer in such a state of mind as Nicodemus 



REGENERATION. 265 

was, this reply would suggest much. To enter that kmg- 
dora of heaven of which he was thinking, one must be 
born again in the widest sense of the figure. He must 
be restored to original purity, washed (born of water), 
and as it were reintroduced into that circle of love, 
meekness, and truth in which he was originally born by 
creation in heaven ; but he must also of necessity be re- 
generated bodily (born of the Spirit) by resurrection, or 
a return into the original conditions of the celestial body. 
A mere reincarnation would not of itself be sufficient. 
It might be a means to the end, by placing him once 
more under remedial influences; but only a means, — he 
would be no more in the celestial world than he is now. 
To enter that, he must have not onl}^ a pure heart, but a 
-spiritual body. Every one that is born of the Spirit is 
invisible, like the wind, which is cognizable to sense 
chiefly by its effects. Nicodemus naturally desired to 
understand all the secrets of that mode of existence. 
He wished Christ to rend the veil ; to take down the 
barriers ; to answer all his minutest inquiries ; to settle 
all disputes, and make celestial things as familiar to him 
as terrestrial. This would be to abandon the principle 
of isolation. Even if he should do this, men would not 
believe. No amount of miracles would convince them. 
They did not believe, as it was, the simplest truths re- 
lating to their present welfare, which Jesus was telling 
them every day. Although he performed miracles, — 
although they knew that he was a teacher sent from 
God, — they did not believe what he taught respecting 
their every-day habits enough to amend them. They 
continued to tell lies, and break the golden rule in a 
thousand ways, and thought Messiah could make them 
happy, or that the kingdom of heaven would be happy 
to them. But if they would not believe these simple 
practical matters, much less would they those of a more 
subtile and celestial kind. 



266 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

Nicodemus thought, perhaps, that it would be easier 
to be holy if this material environment were abolished. 
He was entirely mistaken. He must learn the rudiments 
of holiness here, in and by means of this material envi- 
ronment, or he never could even see that immortal con- 
dition of glorious life. He perhaps thought that sin origi- 
nates with the body, and that to get rid of sin one must 
get out of the body and go to heaven. He ought to know 
that sin originated in heaven, and that to get rid of sin 
men had to get out of heaven and come into the body ; 
and here men must be washed and cleansed through 
the mildly humbling duties of the body, the family, the 
state, — by repentance, by faith, by good works, — or 
they can never enter heaven, nor be happy there if 
they could. 

That reply of Jesus was a decisive rejection of the 
overture of the Pharisaic or dominant party. He de- 
clined to work by party spirit, or to kindle a wild fanat- 
icisni without penitence and inward purification. In- 
stead, he immediately commenced a very different plan 
of action upon the national thought, emotion, and will. 
He commenced at once healing diseases and casting out 
evil spirits (one prolific cause of disease) ; he sent out 
the twelve and the seventy to do the same. This was a 
direct movement to produce a healthy physique (which 
was also contemplated in the Mosaic law) ; to rescue the 
material system, the incarnation system, from abuse, and 
bring it into a normal and vigorous state. This was the 
design of his mighty works, even more than to give proof 
of his mission, though this latter object has sometimes 
been regarded as almost his exclusive ground of mira- 
cles. Yet this element of catastrophism had reference 
to the introduction of a higher era of social and national 
development ; and had it continued for ten, twenty, or 
fifty years, continually expanding, its effects upon the 



EEGENERATION. 267 

public health and longevity would have been immense. 
Sickness and death would have rapidly receded, if not 
entirely disappeared from the presence of the prince of 
life ; and with disease and death would have disappeared 
some of the main causes of povert}^ and distress ; for it 
is to be noticed that, as the complement of this work 
of healing, Jesus commenced a corresponding work of 
toning up the public mind to a condition of moral health, 
of which that of the body is, as shown in a former chap- 
ter, the analogic emblem. He condensed the whole Mo- 
saic system in the golden rule. This is the law and the 
prophets. He fell to work instantly, and worked inces- 
santly, all over Judea and Galilee, — teaching in plain 
language the principles on which alone society can be 
happy, on earth or in heaven. 

The beatitudes are (to use an illustration borrowed 
from our times) the political platform of his campaign ; 
or, to use monarchical analogies, thej'^ are the conditions 
of citizenship in his kingdom. He exerted immense 
power on the common people, to tone up common-sense 
and conscience and affection to sincerity, meekness, hu- 
mility, purity, forgiveness, obedience, and faith. These 
were favorable to good health, and good health was 
favorable to these. He commenced acting with im- 
mense force on both parts of man's nature ; not through 
schools, or cliques, or sects, or parties, — not, as one 
might say, at arm's length, — but directly in his own 
person, and through disciples chosen from the common 
people, a kind of multiplication of himself. He came 
right to the patient ; he felt of the pulse of the suffering 
nation ; he began a direct and glorious battle against 
disease in its very seat — physical, mental, moral. 

Now suppose he had not been violently arrested, — 
suppose this had gone on with accumulating momentum 
fiftj^ years, instead of two and a half, — would he not 



268 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

have more than realized all that Moses glowingly de- 
picted ? Would he not have brought in a state of 
society somewhat like that described by the prophets : 
" There shall be no more theuce an infant of days, nor 
an old man that hath not filled his days : for the child 
shall die a hundred years old : but the sinner being a 
hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall 
build houses, and inhabit them ; and they shall plant 
vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not 
build, and another inhabit ; they shall not plant, and 
another eat ; for as the days of a tree are the days of 
my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of 
their hands." * And had this continued uninterrupted 
from century to century, must not such a state of things 
have extended itself beyond the bounds of Palestine, 
until the whole world would have been similarly affected, 
and "all nations been blessed in the seed of Abraham " ? 
This plan, however, was violently interrupted, and 
history has de,veloped differently. We submit, however, 
that its execution was simply postponed, and that the 
day i§ at hand when it will be resumed and carried 
out, without further interruption, to perfect success ; 
resumed, of course, under modified conditions, and from 
a vastly higher starting-point, but resumed in its main 
elements of direct personal supervision in the healing of 
the body and the toning up of mind and heart. 

* Isaiah Lxv. 17-25. 



TRANSFIGURATION. 269 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

TRANSFIGURATION. 

IT is morning on the heights of Hermon. The snow- 
lies deep and of a velvet softness on those sacred 
summits, while fields far below are blossoming under 
the zephyrs of May. There are the lion's den, in those 
wdld jungles, and the leopard's lair, undisturbed by hu- 
man foot. Those solemn heights, ice-crowned regents 
of the north, wait some august scene predestined to 
transpire in their lonely solitudes. Towards those moun- 
tains' calm repose, how does some ceaseless attraction 
sway the wanderer, sighing forth within him the echo 
of an ancient lyre : 

" Then thou spakest in vision to thy Holy One : 
I have laid help upon one that is mighty ; 
I have exalted one chosen out of the people." 

Wistfully he gazes towards those cool, refreshing 
pines, and longs to escape from man into their whisper- 
ing aisles, and rest with his beloved upon those " heights 
of Hermon where the Lord commanded his blessing, 
even life for evermore ! " And even as he looks, the 
voice within him sighs again : 

" I will make Him my first-born, 
Higher than the kings of the earth." 

He scales the cliffs of Hermon, where all ancient le- 
gends say angels descended when the world was young. 



270 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

He leaves the multitude afar. He reaches the highest 
verge of vegetable life. Above, towers a dazzling pyra- 
mid of snow, like a throne of judgment white and spot- 
less, bathed in clouds, and refulgent with dawn. Below 
spreads the wide panorama of hill and vale, lake, river 
and ocean. Cities and villages are there almost number- 
less. The whole land teems with life. Yonder they 
descry their native lake, sparkling in its tiny basin. 
Yonder, the Jordan winding through the deep valley 
towards the Sea of Sodom. Yonder lies Tabor, far below, 
and the wide Esdraelon prairie, and the Mediterranean's 
blue line along the horizon. All the mighty labors of 
the past come thronging on the memory as they gaze 
abroad. They almost seem to catch the stir and hum of 
men as the seventy heralds go from point to point like 
fire-flies in the summer's night. A while they converse 
on all they have endured. Soon they relapse into silence. 
While He agonizes in prayer, they pass from reverie to 
dreamless sleep. 

Soon an undefined awe steals through their slumbers. 
Half roused, they seem to hear voices, but the accents 
blend in the dreamy changes of their drowsy brain. 
Nearer those voices come, and more distinct; the sleep- 
ers sigh, they stir, they wake. Is it the sun's effulgence 
that overpowers sight? Is it the sheeny reflection of 
the avalanche above ? Are these intolerable splendors 
that threaten to devour them, the emanations of any 
created corruptible luminary ? And where is he, that 
man they called but a moment since their master and 
friend ? Can this be the same upon whose face they 
cannot steadily gaze ? Is that His mild, sorrow-fraught 
countenance now shining as the sun in his strength ? 
And where are those humble garments he wore ? And 
whence comes the whiteness of these royal robes, whose 
very substance seems woven of sunbeams, glistening 



TRANSFIGURATION. 271 

with a brilliance no art can imitate, each slenderest fibre 
and filament trembling as if in the centre of a consum- 
ing fire. Ah, it is that sacred form itself whose irre- 
pressible intensity of lustre shoots through all covering, 
transfiguring opaque matter to transparent brightness. 

And who are those who stand conversing by his side ? 
What deep-buried power of reminiscence suddenly 
wakes from the slumber of their incarnation, to tell them 
who yon flaming figures be ? Their earthly eye has 
never seen them ; no voice has introduced them ; yet 
their exalted intuitions recognize a Moses, an Elias. 
And what the theme of this celestial colloquy ? What 
word arrests their attention, familiarly breathed by those 
lips of fire ? They hear Moses speaking of an exodus, 
his exodus, which he must accomplish in Jerusalem. 
And what is that ? Is it Death ? Do such shining im- 
mortals talk of death ? Can such an all-glorious Living 
King as He go down to die ? And out of Death's dark 
womb, out of bondage to the grave, out of that Eg3'pt 
in the heart of the earth, the Egypt of the dead, must 
his exodus be accomplished, as first-begotten from the 
dead? But the sight of Moses, and the sound of the 
familiar word exodus, causes a train of familiar associa- 
tions to rush through the minds of the amazed disciples, 
calling up the tabernacle of old, with all its sublime pa- 
geantry of fire and cloud, the glory of the Lord. " Lord, 
cries Simon, let us make here three tabernacles ; one for 
thee, one for Moses, one for Elias." Yet, as he spoke, 
an unexpected fulfilment of his words took place. That 
same ancient pillar of cloud and fire, of which they had 
read, for which they had yearned, and which they con- 
sidered the Sign of the Messiah's coming, lo ! here it 
rolls its volumed folds gleaming with an inward bright- 
ness down around them. That sense of awe, and fear, 
which prophets always described as occasioned by the 



272 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

near approach of God, overpowered them. And while 
they trembled, a voice seemed to come out of the bright 
centre of the cloud, " This is my beloved son, in whom 
I am well pleased : Hear YE Him." At this, as prophets 
always were wont, they seemed to faint, and fall pros- 
trate. But the next moment a hand touches them, a 
familiar voice addresses them, saying, " Rise, fear not ! " 
They obey. They gaze round. The pageant is gone. 
There is Jesus alone. And all nature appears just as it 
did before. " Tell the vision to no man till the Spn of 
Man be risen from the dead," is the charge they receive 
as they descend from the mountain. 

Years roll by : years of toil, tribulation, persecution, 
change. The nation is scattered ; the temple destroyed ; 
the churches smitten sore with persecution. All the 
fond anticipations of youth, how changed ! An old 
man, just ready to put off his tabernacle, just ready for 
his exodus (expressive word !), is thinking of the labors of 
a lifetime. How does it seem to him ? Has his life been 
wasted? Is it all a mistake, a delusion? Is death the end? 
Is it a plunge into dark oblivion ? He looks back to this 
beautiful scene. He says : " We have not followed cun- 
ningly devised fables, when we made known unto you 
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were 
eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God 
the Father honor and glory, when there came such a 
voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which 
came from heaven we heard, when we were with him 
in the holy mount. We have, therefore, the prophetic 
word confirmed, to which ye do well to take heed in 
your hearts, as to a light shining in a dark place, until 
the day dawn and the day-star arise." * 

* Ecag ov -fijuiga diavy&crri, xal cpwacpdgog dLPazeli.7j. (2 Pet. i. 16-19.) 



THE VEIL RENT. 273 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE VEH, RENT. 

THE Jewish nation was in a very critical condition ; 
in fact, as the sequel proved, on the verge of de- 
struction. The intensity of popular hatred to the Roman 
3^oke we at this day can with difficulty realize. Fanatic 
leaders arose from time to time inciting to revolt. The 
people at one time sought to take Jesus by force and 
make him a king. And, although he refrained from 
stirring up such feelings, the rulers, seeing the effect of 
his words and works, were alarmed. " If we let this 
man alone, the Romans will come , and take away our 
place and our nation," * 

Jesus saw the impending dangers, and how they could 
be averted by repentance and faith in God. The cove- 
nant was still in force, and the Lord was solemnly 
pledged to protect them, if faithful to their obligations. 
In the' Sermon on the Mount, and in his other teach- 
ings, Jesus explained the principles of the kingdom. He 
embodied those principles in what we call the Lord's 
Prayer. But neither of the great parties could see that 
in these simple principles was their only salvation. They 
might have laid aside party differences, and united on a 
leader so powerful in word and deed, if he would have 
drawn the sword, and employed the usual arts of diplo- 
macy. But to have done this would have been to be 
false to those principles of good government he came to 
* John xi. 48. 

18 



274 SPIRITUAL MAiflFESTATIONS. 

establish. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, 
was the subject of many of his parables and other teach- 
ings ; the question being how to rule ignorant and seltish 
masses so as to do them the most good. In the beati- 
tudes, as they are called*, he gives the principles of citi- 
zenship, namely, poverty of spirit, meekness, sorrow, 
hunger and thirst for righteousness, peace-making, 
purity of heart, patience under wrongs, a forgiving 
spirit.* So the Lord's Prayer: reverence, submission, 
faith in God for temporal support as well as spiritual, 
and for deliverance from temptation. f Jesus saw that 
these were really the only sound principles of political 
economy in any age or nation, so far as citizens or sub- 
jects are concerned. 

So likewise in regard to the character of the prince, 
or ruler. To rule over ignorant and erring multitudes, 
he must not resort to deception, to flattery, and appeals 
to selfish and vindictive passion, nor to any of the arts of 
diplomatist or demagogue. He must speak pure truth, 
and appeal only to right motives, and must himself act 
in accordance with his professions. All rulers, ancient 
and modern, have either claimed divine honors outright, 
or a divine sanction, and paternal intention ; and under 
representative forms all government is professedly for 
tlie public good ; and all parties proclaim in their plat- 
forms some of the principles of disinterested benevo- 
lence. In practice, however, the aggrandizement of the 
prince or party has been first, and the good of the peo- 
ple secondary. With Jesus there must be perfect prac- 
tice as well as profession. 

" The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over 

them, .... but it shall not be so with you ; .... he 

that will be greatest among you, let him be as he that 

doth serve." $ It can be confidently affirmed that his 

* Matt. V. 3-11. t Matt. vi. 9, &c. J Luke xxii. 26. 



THE VEIL RENT. 275 

whole life was a faithful exemplification of these prin- 
ciples. He sometimes illustrated them by emblematic 
actions of a very striking kind, as, for example, when he 
washed his disciples' feet. " Know 3^e what I have done 
unto you ? If I your Lord and Master have Avashed 
your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet."* 
This was his idea of presiding over ignorant and selfish 
minds so as really to do them any good. We have 
studied the temptation in the wilderness, and have seen 
how it turns on this principle. We may study also with 
profit the closing scenes of his life. 

The trial and execution of Jesus may be contemplated 
in several different aspects, but in none more worthy of 
attention than the political. A recent writer, after an 
able discussion of the subject, sums up as follows : " It 
was a double trial, and both parts of it were conducted 
with a certain regard to the forms of the two most fa- 
mous jurisprudences in the world. In both, the judges 
were unjust, and the trial was unfair; yet in both the 
right issue was substantially raised. And in both the 
issue was the same. Jesus Christ was truly condemned 
on a double charge of treason. He died because in the 
ecclesiastical council he claimed to be the Son of God 
and the Messiah of Israel, and because before the world- 
wide tribunal he claimed to be Christ, a king." f 

The peculiarity of the ordeal was, that he could have 
easily extricated himself by a little chicanery even at 
that fatal crisis. If, instead of saying to the Sanhedrim, 
" Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man coming on the 
right hand of power," he had given them the Shekinah 
sign they demanded, intimating by a syllable his readi- 
ness to throw off the Roman yoke, the whole scene would 

* John xiii. 5-14. 

t Alexander Taylor Innes, " The Trial of Christ." Contemporary 
Review. 



276 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

have changed in a moment. Let him have intimated his 
willingness to head a sedition like Judas of Gamala, or 
Barabbas,* he would have been welcomed with enthu- 
siasm. On the other hand, nothing would have been 
easier than for him to temporize with Pilate. " Art thou 
a king ? " said the Roman governor. " Thou sayest," 
was the answer, " I am a king." But he gave Pilate to 
understand that his kingdom was different from other 
kingdoms. " My kingdom is not of this world. If my 
kingdom were of this world, then would my servants 
fight." t 

Jesus was evidently conscious at that moment, as at 
every preceding moment in his career, that the offer 
made him in the wilderness was still open to his accept- 
ance. He knew that by what the world would call a 
justifiable falsehood, and an appeal to what the world 
would call patriotism, he could open the path to bound- 
less dominion. But " to this end was I born, and for this 
cause came I into this world, that I might bear witness 
to the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth' 
my voice." ^ He would not lie, either to save his life, 
or to attain dominion, or to carry out any great scheme 
of apparent benevolence. It was the vicious principle 
of doing evil that good may come that lay at the founda- 
tion of the corruption of all earthly kingdoms ; and Jesus 
saw it, and knew that that vicious element must be ex- 
pelled. Thus when certain Greeks desired to see him, 
expecting, perhaps, to see some hero like those of the 
Olympian games, he began to speak figuratively about 
dying, and exclaimed : " Now is the crisis of this world, 
now shall the prince of this world be cast out ! " § 

And it was the pressure of this vicious principle upon- 
him in seductive forms, forms of expediency, friendship, 

* Barabbas was a robber ; he may also have been a Zealot. 

t John xviii. 33-38. J John xviii. 37. § John xx. 21-32. 



THE VEIL KENT. 277 

duty, that made the trial peculiarly painful. Thus on a 
certain occasion, when he had foretold his approaching 
death, Simon began to expostulate with him, breathing 
the spirit of sincere but mistaken affection, Ued>g aoi xigie^ 
— '' Pity thyself, Lord," or, as we say, " For pity's sake, 
Lord, this shall not be unto thee." * This revealed to 
Jesus so vividly how, in a worldly point of view, the 
course he was taking might be deemed visionary, absurd, 
and even wrong, that it occasioned acute suffering. 
" Get thee behind me, adversary ; thou art an offence 
unto me ; thou savorest not the things that be of God, 
but the things that be of men." 

Did not Jesus then see that an invisible agency was 
' making use of Simon's affection to influence him ? 
Simon was not aware of it ; and how often had Jesus to 
admonish his disciples that they knew not what manner 
of spirit they were of. Now this pressure of tempta- 
tion under forms ostensibly friendly continued to the 
last. At the passover, we read : " The devil entered 
into Judas, and put it into his heart to betray him." f 
Hence, when Judas had gone out, and his return with 
temple myrmidons was momentarily expected, he says, 
" The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing 
in me." ^ But Judas expressed no conscious enmity. 
Quite the contrary : he took special pains to show that 
what he did was done through no ill-will to Jesus ; but, 
in fact, from love. " He said, ' Hail Master,' and 
kissed him." § Possibly Judas thought that at the last 
moment Jesus would throw off disguise, flash out on his 
foes, and reign. Possibly he meant to compel him to do 
it without further delay. If so, he was in fact a per- 
fect image and embodiment of the presiding spirit of the 
world. 

* Matt. xvi. 21-23. t John xiii. 2, 27. 

J John xiv. 30. § Matt. xxvi. 40. 



278 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

That Christ could have done what he was so strongly 
impelled to do, he shows : " Thinkest thou I cannot now 
pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me 
here more than twelve legions of angels? " * That the 
pressure of motive was peculiarly specious and so con- 
trived as to make it seem right, and even a duty, to do 
what was wanted of him, is apparent from his words, 
" This is your hour and the power of darkness." f The 
power of darkness is the power of making a fallac}^, an 
untruth, seem exceedingly bright, and true, and irre- 
sistible, and to make the real truth appear absurd and 
ridiculous. To the worldly mind of that age, Christ's 
course was mere sentimentalism ; and the adversary was 
able to pour a flood of influence upon Jesus, to make 
him think so also. At times that influence was all but 
irresistible, so that Jesus was thrown into an agony, re- 
sisting unto blood. But now he is calm ; and to the 
" Hail Master," and the kiss, responds, " Friend, where- 
fore art thou come ? " Jesus could say this to Judas 
alone with apt significance, or to a mightier spirit whose 
character and principles Judas unconsciously expressed. 
Hence when the Roman governor says, " Knowest thou 
not I have power to crucif}^ thee, and have power to re- 
lease thee ? " he replies : " Thou couldst have no power 
at all against me, except it were given thee from above ; 
therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the 
greater sin." ^ In this inference the poor tool, Judas, is 
almost lost sight of, and the master-spirit seems to be 
present to his thought. Thy power, O Roman, is dele- 
gated. The powers that be (visible or invisible) are 
ordained of God. He to whom was delegated the power 
of all the kingdoms of this world, hath delivered me to 
thee ; in so doing he has abused that delegated power 
in the highest degree ; so much the greater his guilt. 

* Matt. xxvi. 53. f Luke xxii. 53. J John xix. 11. 



THE VEIL RENT. 279 

Thus Jesus throughout that terrible trial was pa- 
tiently subject to constituted authorities, however they 
might abuse their power ; and asserted his own anoiuted 
rights, while steadfastly refusing, by their premature or 
dishonest exercise, to abridge by one hair's-breadth the 
term of office of the reigning princes of this world. 
Now, if the Prince of this world really felt no per- 
sonal enmity to Jesus ; if he used the customary arts 
and appliances of worldly diplomacy to accomplish a 
purpose he believed expedient and in a sense justifiable ; 
if he really believed Jesus would yield, and that he 
would then open to him an illustrious career, at the same 
time vindicating the substantial correctness of his own 
policy, — then we see, that, as Saul fell on his own sword, 
and as Judas went and hanged himself, so the Prince 
of this world, in permitting that trial to go through to 
execution of sentence, virtually committed suicide. The 
two princes were in reality confronted before the tri- 
bunal of the moral sense of the ages ; both were ou 
trial ; and the one, in condemning the other, condemned 
himself. In vain the " Hail Master," and the kiss ; in 
vain the washing of hands, and the "I am innocent of 
the blood of this just person," — and the too ready re- 
sponse, " His blood be on us and on our children," — the 
full responsibility was on them, and on him who ener- 
gized behind those poor frail forms of flesh and blood, 
contending for the supremacy of the universe. 

And thus it came to pass that on his cross, above his 
head, the inscription was placed : 

" THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS ! " 

That was the appropriate climax of his career. This 
is what it costs to be a king of ignorant, selfish, sinful 
people, with any hope of doing them good ! One must be 
• willing to come to this. One must have the heart to say, 



280 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS, 

while thus treated, " Father, forgive them ; they know 
not what they do." Never in the whole of his career, 
though he saw how ignorant and foolish the people were, 
and how easily he could have practised on their patriotic 
sympathies, — how he could have deceived them to believe 
anything, however absurd, — never did he sneer at them, 
or scoff at them ; never did one word of scorn or con- 
tempt breathe from his lips. And when they in their 
disappointment and delirium cried out, " He saved others, 
himself he cannot save !" he was saying, " It is finished. 
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." That 
foolish, deceived, ungrateful people were saved ; the 
dark and cruel deceiver who had held them captive was 
defeated, and man's final coronation over the universe 
made sure. 

"AND THE VEIL OF THE TEMPLE WAS RENT FROM 
THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM." 

From the gates of paradise until now that mystic veil, 
token of man's exclusion from his native skies, had hung, 
the Holy Spirit thereby signifying that the way into that 
most hoi}'- place, the way of return to the tree of life, 
was not yet made manifest.* Now the primeval oracle 
is accomplished, " Thou shalt bruise his heel, he shall 
bruise thy head." The sublime tableau of ages is ended. 
The veil is rent. The ban of empire is repealed. The 
handwriting of attainder is blotted out.f The home- 
ward, heavenward way is made manifest ; and of all 
spiritual MANIFESTATIONS this, to the contrite heart, is 
sweetest, dearest, most attractive. 

* Heb. ix. 8. f Col. ii. 14. 



APHELION. 281 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

APHELION. 

HADES was anciently supposed to be located in the 
interior of the earth. At a very early period the 
Assyrians conceived of it as consisting of seven circles, 
with gates guarded by formidable figures, in which all 
the departed, good and bad, were confined. Yet there 
was even there a deeply concealed fountain of the 
water of life — a glimpse of a future resurrection. The 
Egyptian Hades, before the time of Moses, was much 
more vivid, and its scenes not only described in language 
of singular intensity, but pictured to the eye in vivid 
colors. 

The Bible is much more reserved in respect to 
Hades, so much so as strongly to suggest intentional 
reticence. That Moses should refrain from post mortem 
terrors and employ temporal sanctions only, at the same 
time prohibiting all converse with the departed, must 
have been from design on his part, or on the part of 
the spirit by whom he was controlled ; for that he 
was a true medium spiritualists concede ; and this 
design is one of the most striking features of the sys- 
tem, a consistent part of that policy of isolation by 
means of this material system of which we have spoken. 
This policy Jesus did not during his lifetime abrogate. 
When accused of having come to destroy the Mosaic 
law, he pointedly repelled the charge. The nation was 
still under covenant with the Lord, and if they repented 
and reformed, he was bound to forgive them and defend 



282 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

them against the world. Hence Jesus reveals little if 
anything new concerning the place and state of the de- 
parted. They are somehow connected with this world. 
They are conscious. They are social by laws of moral 
affinity, and in some degree according to affinities of race 
and family. They are happy or otherwise, according to 
character ; and the conditions of reformation are less 
favorable there than in this life ; — but these are features 
of the conventional belief, incidentally employed to illus- 
trate particular points in his teaching, yet on the whole 
sparingly and guardedly. 

The main object of the parable of Dives and Lazarus, 
for instance, was to show that if Israel would not repent 
and reform by motives furnished by Moses and the 
prophets, which were temporal mainly, neither would 
they repent though one rose from the dead to add the 
motives of future retribution.* History has verified 
this. Those ages in which purgatorial torments have 
been most vividly depicted have not been the purest. 
Spiritualists very generally concede this. Those me- 
diums who have most to do with spirits of the lowest 
sphere, and who describe the gloom and suffering of 
that sphere in the most appalling colors, do not thereby 
elevate themselves and others. On the contrary, there 
is often a visible tendency to deception and immorality. 
The substantial truth of this statement all spiritualists 
will concede. 

There is another point in which spiritualists are prac- 
tically unanimous. It is that, dynamically, the condition 
of the disembodied is inferior. They are indeed in a 
sense corporeal, they exert power over matter, but they 
appear to be both physically and mentally dependent on 
the organism of a living medium. In this they differ from 
the celestials proper. In these very general statements 
* Luke xvi. 31. 



APHELION. 283 

the indications of all mediums, ancient and modern, 
sacred and profane, substantially coincide. 

Now, without further speculation as to the question of 
locality or mode and manner of existence, and cherishing 
that reserve which seems so fundamental an element of 
the present economy, all spiritualists will concede that 
the same general principles on which Jesus was sent 
on a mission of love to this world, would also, unless 
there be objections unknown to us, send him to a still 
lower sphere. And it is noteworthy that in this all 
mediums, ancient and modern, sacred and profane, do 
in some sense agree. The general conception of a descent 
of a celestial being to the Underworld is found in some 
if not all the most ancient mythologies. All will con- 
cede that if the prediction respecting the seed of the 
Woman was explained to Adam and Eve, this woidd 
account for such a universal tradition in an easy and 
natural manner ; especially when taken in connection 
with the analogic language of nature, where day and 
night, summer and winter, are continually speaking of a 
resurrection ; and particularly in view of the Levitical 
types, some of which were expressly contrived to shadow 
forth the precise truth expressed by David : " Thou wilt 
not leave my soul in Hades." All spiritualists concede 
David's mediumship, and can see that, " being a seer," 
he might in such an utterance be speaking what was 
true not merely of him, but of his race, and especially 
of him who was its chief, the Son of Man. 

That Jesus did in fact descend to Hades is so mani- 
festly the teaching of Peter,* and has been so nearly 
the unanimous belief of Christendom, Roman, Greek, 
and Protestant, from the earliest ages, that the modern 
attempts to put a different meaning into the words are 
not deemed worthy of serious refutation. The only 

* 1 Peter iii. 18, 19. 



284 SPrEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

question is, what Christ preached, and why. Now, on 
this point the apostle says : " For this cause was the 
gospel preached also to the dead, that they might be 
judged according to men in the flesh, but live according 
to God in the spirit." * Now give to xqidaav ('-might be 
judged ") its most common sense, not of a condemning 
sentence, but of administration of righteous govern- 
ment, and observe that the aorist subjunctive denotes 
that the judgment in question must be consequent upon 
the preaching, and we have a sense that is consistent 
and probable. Christ simply explained to the waiting 
race that at a future period, not specified, they should all 
of them, not even excepting the antediluvians, (the ex- 
treme case being taken on purpose,) be reincarnate, and 
so come under the judgment or righteous rule of Messiah 
"• according to men " in human form, in the ordinary 
conditions of humanity here, in order that they might 
thus live unto God in the spirit. If it be asked why 
Christ should make such a proclamation, let Paul 
answer : " For to this end Christ both died, and rose, 
and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and 
living," — ?»'« Kvqis-uaji^ — that he might exercise lord- 
ship over the dead and the living. f He visited them, as 
their Lord and Redeemer, to proclaim to them good 
tidings, and exhibit himself as the head of the race, — a 
moral victor, and as such " holding the keys of Hades," J 
as a conqueror holds the keys of a captured fortress. 

Such reincarnation would be a resurrection to judg- 
ment, in the pleasing sense of that term, namely, the 
administration of government on gospel principles. Jesus 
distinctly speaks of this. " The hour is coming when all 
who are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son 
of Man, and shall come forth, they that have done good 
to the resurrection of life, they that have done evil to 

* 1 Pet. iv. 6. t Rom. xiv. 9. % Rev. i. 18. 



APHELION. 



285 



the resurrection of judgment ; " * —those who have in 
fact been reformed spiritually by the system, to their 
original celestial and immortal condition; those who 
have not been reformed, into a mortal condition by 
natural re-birth, in order to come under remedial influ- 
ences. The general aspect of the resurrection is there- 
fore cheerful for both classes, and it is to be regretted 
that our generally excellent version should have given 
it a sombre coloring by translating " they that have done 
evil to the resurrection of damnation." The word is 
judgment, the same employed by Peter in describing the 
object of Christ evangelizing the dead, " that they might 
be judged after the manner of men in the flesh." 

This cheerful view is probably that entertained by 
that most highly favored seer and apostle, Paul, when 
he described himself as " having hope toward God, that 
there shall be a resurrection both of the just and of the 
unjust:' Here the resurrection of the unjust is as hope- 
ful as that of the just, so far as the language is con- 
cerned. 

Spiritualists of the Kardecian school have contem- 
plated reincarnation from a somewhat different stand- 
point, viewing it more as pertaining to a general scheme 
of evolution. They will, however, readily concede the 
possibihty of its application also in special modes, at 
special times, in a comprehensive remedial economy. 

It is impossible in the present work to offer any ex- 
tended speculations upon this most pregnant topic, to 
which, should circumstances permit, the author would 
gladly devote a subsequent volume. That reincarnation 
may have been a feature of past development cannot be 
denied; but that it is proven can hardly be affirmed. 
But even if it have entered as a factor into the extremely 
complicate web of human affairs, the position now 

* John V. 29. 



286 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

assumed is, that it is yet to have, in the near future, 
an application far more systematic and comprehensive, 
and in manifest relation to the mediatorial plan. 

But while the resurrection of the entire race, at 
the second advent, by a natural re-birth, (so far as 
they are yet unreformed,) is a cheerful subject of con- 
templation, the resurrection of that portion of the race 
already reclaimed, by an immortal birth, into their native 
heavenly state, is a more cheerful, a glorious theme. 
Of this the most conspicuous, and, as many expressions 
of ancient seers would indicate, the first and only -in- 
stance thus far, is that of Jesus, — a sublime movement, 
commencing on the third day, completed at his ascen- 
sion through all the heavens, far above thrones, domin- 
ions, principalities, and powers. Now, if spiritualists 
are constrained, consistently with their own principles, 
(as we have endeavored to show they are,) to admit the 
existence of controversy in very high, if not the highest 
celestial spheres, they will readily perceive that such a 
return could not but have a decisive influence upon all 
the great issues involved. The effects of Jesus' per- 
sonal presence and testimony respecting his earthly 
ordeal, and the treatment he had received from cosmo- 
cratic chiefs, must react, by intellectual and moral law, 
upon them. 

An ancient seer, who had himself been rapt in vision 
to the third heaven, describes the effect comprehensively 
as a purification of the heavenly place.* It effected, 
according to another eminent seer, a casting down of the 
accuser, and a concentration of his forces upon this 
world as a final battlefield,! — a change not magical, or 

* Heb. ix. 23. This, according to the common idea of a Pauline 
authorship. The same would be true if the epistle were written by 
ApoUos, under Pauline supervision. 

t Rev. xii. 7-12. 



APHELION. 



287 



mechanical, not by thunderbolts, or by arbitrary meas- 
ures of brute force, but by intellectual and moral pro- 
cesses requiring more or less time. How much time 
such vast changes in other worlds might require, it 
would be presumption to say. But when Paul wrote 
Ephesiaus vi. 12, it is manifest that the changes were 
yet incomplete. The process of casting down was pro- 
ceeding, but the cosmocracy was yet in some sense 
celestial. 



288 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

EXORCISM. 

WE have shown, in the chapter on the Ancient City, 
the condition to which superstition and the wor- 
ship of the dead had reduced humanit}^, even in the 
most cultivated nations. Lenormant * shows the power 
of magic to terrify and enslave the people, as exempli- 
fied at a very early stage of history. The Book of the 
Dead makes a similar revelation in respect to an- 
cient Egypt. The power of fetichism and voodooism, 
and other forms of magic at the present day, over vast 
masses of the human race, is well known. The phenom- 
ena of possession were not peculiar to the Jewish nation, 
or to the time of Christ. They were probably less 
prominent there than elsewhere, as that was the only 
nation in which the worship of the dead had been 
successfully resisted, and as it were dyked out. It may 
have appeared more prominent, by reason of special 
efforts of unseen powers to penetrate the barrier, as 
waters jet through the dyke, or dam ; and by reason of 
the excitement produced by the presence of Jesus, and 
his resistless power to expel the invader. 

The term " devils " in the authorized version is incor- 
rect, as there is but one who bears the title " The Devil," 
and he is a celestial being. Demons would be more cor- 
rect, but carries with it the idea of fiendish malignity 
which the original Saifmv did not possess. It is difficult 

* La Magie chez Us Chaldeens. 



;i4P . M|wi! ' UW>ii!w iiiii'ji ;i; i';^ ',' ■'.■■ I'i.'i'i' j iii! . "!'! lv^ y - -™'V^vJvv^!^>^^^ ^^ ^ 



EXOECISM. 289 

to find a term not preoccupied by use in a false conven- 
tional sense. The modern term, " the spirits," would 
perhaps come as near as any our language possesses, to 
the true sense of daqionu^ indicating simply departed 
spirits. They are sometimes called " unclean spirits " 
in the sense, of course, familiar to the Jews, that is, un- 
forgiven, impure. This is the character assigned them 
by all spiritualists. Men on leaving the body are just 
as selfish as we see them to be in the present life. Those 
that are low and impure linger about the scenes of their 
earthly life, and seek to possess the bodies of mediums. 
They do this, not from positive malice, but because they 
are restless. Such is the uniform and copious testimony 
of spiritualists of all schools. 

A spirit recently deceased says : " This constant de- 
sire for earth and earthly matters keeps me still within 
the old sphere." Another says: "When death comes, 
the spirit seeks its affinities, let them be in the dark abode 
of ' outer darkness,' as the Scriptures term it, or in the 
spheres of light.". Another says : " Such spirits are 
very sensitive, easily take oifence, and are very malicious 
and revengeful when slighted in the smallest degree ; 
they are all very anxious to learn how to escape from 
their awful doom, and make unceasing efforts to enter 
the bodies of men and women on earth." 

This view corresponds to the indications of the gospel 
narrative. Thus Jesus describes an unclean spirit, after 
being expelled, as " walking through dry places, seeking 
rest and finding none ; " and then as saying, " I will re- 
turn to my house whence I came out." He is indeed a 
wicked spirit, as all selfish men are wicked men ; but he 
is impelled to enter by his restless and unsatisfied state. 
Such spirits, it would seem, invade the bodies of mortals;' 
wherever the ties are not drawn tightly, wherever the 
door is left ajar or unlatched, they enter, disregarding 
19 



290 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

tlie effects upon the medium, — catalepsy, somnambulism, 
clairvoyance, trance, ecstasy ; or blindness, deafness, 
dumbness, paralysis, lunacy, delirium. The manifesta- 
tion made by the New Testament of the state of de- 
parted spirits who have habitually violated the golden 
rule, is very striking. We see them " swarming " about 
some living victim. We see " a legion " of them in one 
wretched organism. Look at the picture of the demoniac 
of Gadara. "And when he was coipe out of the ship, 
immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with 
an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs ; 
and no man could bind him, no, not with chains : because 
that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, 
and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and 
the fetters broken in pieces : neither could any man tame 
him. And always night and daj^, he was in the moun- 
tains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with 
stones.'' * These spirits are no more hard-hearted than 
men walking the earth in flesh and blood, who rob, and 
murder, and seduce female innocence, tempt reclaimed 
inebriates, and for gain ruin society. They are only as 
hard-hearted and unfeeling out of the body as in, with 
less to restrain and amuse and interest them. Hence 
they recoil from the pure and benevolent presence of 
Jesus, saying : 

" What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the 
Most High God ? I adjure thee by God, that thou tor- 
ment me not." .... "Let us alone! Art thou come 
hither to torment us before the time ? " 

And they beg permission even to enter the organism 
of swine, rather than to be sent into the abyss, as they 
call it, the lowest sphere of existence. 

It is most interesting, then, to study Christ's bearing 
towards the spirits ; especially as all spiritualists agree 

* Mark t. 2-5. 



EXORCISM. 291 

that he was a medium of the highest purity, and of 
course eminently qualified to testify in relation to the 
spirit-world. It is also conceded by many, if not all the 
most eminent spiritualist writers, that the Levitical pro- 
hibition of magic, and necromancy, in all its forms, was 
wise and necessary at that time. It is thought, however, 
that the prohibition fell with the Levitical system ; that 
the same reasons for it no longer existed ; and that the 
injunction to " try the spirits " and other indications 
imply that intercourse with " the spirits " was recognized 
under the new dispensation. 

This is a plausible statement. It is supported with no 
little ingenuit}^ and copious references to the New Testa- 
ment. We welcome all such investigations, and cheer- 
fully take our stand by the side of such Bible students 
upon their own chosen principles of interpretation, to 
which we trust they will faithfully adhere. There is, 
however, need of caution, as there are several fallacies 
by which the inquirer, however sincere, may be led 
astray. One such fallacy is the confounding of the 
human race with the angelic. 

Spiritualists seem to have taken up the idea without 
much thought, that all orders and grades in the spirit- 
world — angels and archangels, thrones, dominions, prin- 
cipalities, and powers — were once men, and commenced 
their existence here on this earth, or (as Swedenborg 
teaches) on some other of the innumerable earths of 
the material universe. The Kardecian and the Theo- 
sophic schools may be exceptions to this remark. But 
how do spiritualists convince themselves of this ? Is it 
not improbable, if the spirit universe be as vast as the 
material, that the boundless ocean of being should have 
flowed out from this single planet? There is an im- 
mense volume of water that bursts up from unknown 
depths, at Wakulla Spring, in Florida, forming a broad 



292 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

river ; but would it seem to warrant the statement 
that the whole Atlantic Ocean flowed out of Wakulla 
Spring ? As to other planets, what conclusive evidence 
have we that they are inhabited by human beings? 
Have not spiritualists incautiously allowed an element of 
materialistic evolutionism to slip into their system un- 
perceived ? Is not a motion to reconsider that theory in 
order? Especially as ancient seers, to whose oracles 
spiritualists, as we have seen, appeal, have something to 
say on this very point. " Unto which of the angels said 
he at an}'^ time, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make 
thy foes thy foot-stool ? " * It was unto a man that this 
w^as said, not to an angel. The whole argument of the 
first chapter of Hebrews is to show that man, in the per- 
son of its representative or chief, is not merely distinct 
from, but exalted far above all angels, so that in contrast 
the office of the latter is subordinate. " Are they not 
all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them 
who' shall be heirs of salvation?"! 

It is one of the curious illustrations of the superficial 
method in which the Scriptures are too often handled, 
that this verse should be constantly quoted in proof of 
the alleged fact that at death good men become angels. 
In reality it implies the reverse, for he goes on to say : 
'' For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the 
world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain 
place testified, saying. What is man, that thou art mind- 
ful of him ? or the son of man, that thou visitest him ? 
Thou madest him a little lower than the angels : thou 
crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him 
over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things in 
subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in sub- 
jection under him, he left nothing that is not put under 
him. But now we see not yet all things put under him : 
* Heb. i. 5. f Heb. i^ 14. 



MlillHIII II i I' l l ! II I! ,1.1.1, [■" ii iiiiii.i. ;. I.l.i. I.Ji'iilHi'iiiii.J. _^ _ '.■'.■.i.liUii.L I ., I .,.,..i!!.L.,.., 



EXORCISM. 293 

but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than ttie 
angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory 
and honor ; that he by the grace of God should taste 
death for everj^ man." 

A full exposition of this most important passage is 
beyond our present limits. It is, however, manifest that 
a contrast is drawn between two races, in respect to 
their future dominion. The present world is subject to 
tlie angels. There is to be a world, or an age, in which 
the human race will be supreme over the moral universe. 
We do not, indeed, now see this accomplished in full ; 
but we do see it accomplished in part by the coronation 
of Jesus. This conception of the future dignity of man 
had either been handed down as an element of the primi- 
tive Eden oracles, or it had been communicated through 
the apostolic medium ; for Paul refers to it as something 
well known : " Know ye not that the saints shall judge 
angels ?" * that is, shall exercise jurisdiction over them. 
Compare, also, that sublime promise communicated 
through the seer of Patmos : " To him that overcometh 
will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also 
overcame and am set down with my Father in his 
throne." f 

So great, so transcendent is this future exaltation of 
man, that language fails to express it. It is " a far 
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," and the 
mind itself faints under the sublimity of the prospect, 
for which cause the apostle was constant and earnest 
in prayer, that those to whom he communicated such 
ideas might be strengthened with might by the spirit of 
wisdom and revelation, so as to be able to comprehend 
and endure a truth so wide and deep, and so overwhelm- 
ingly glorious.:): It is in the light of these grand dis- 
closures that we should approach the question. What was 

* 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3. f Rev. iii. 21. ; Ephes. i. 16-23; iii. 14-19. 



294 SPIRITUAL MAIJTIFESTATIONS. 

the attitude of Christ towards intrusive spirits of the 
other sphere ? What his bearing was towards the cos- 
mocracy we have seen ; but what was his course, and 
that of his apostles, towards " the spirits " of the lower 
sphere, or Hades? 

We have seen that in the ordeal in the desert Jesus 
refused to place his mind in the attitude of asking or 
accepting control from the cosmocratic principalities. 
After the ordeal angels came and ministered to him, 
possibly supplying food, as they did to Elijah ; so in the 
Garden there appeared an angel strengthening him ; and 
he intimated that he could have asked the Father to 
send more than twelve legions of angels to his aid, and 
not have asked in vain, but he did not. In all these 
cases he sublimely indicated his superiority to angels, 
their military subordination to him, and his entire and 
implicit dependence on God only. Christ's life was full 
of prayer. But all his prayers were addressed directly 
and onl}^ to God ; and so he taught his disciples to pray, 
saying, " Our Father, which art in heaven." 

What, then, was Christ's bearing towards spirits of an 
inferior grade ? It was one of majestic supremacy. He 
rebuked them. He would not suffer them to speak. He 
declined their suffrages. Their testimony to his mission 
was untimely and uncalled for ; yet it was, one cannot 
help thinking, a compassionate superiority. There is not 
one word of scorn, or contempt, or hatred. He ejected 
them ; he empowered his disciples to do so ; but he 
did it because it was one feature of that work of which 
we have spoken, — of restoring society to perfect health. 
It was one step in rescuing this material system from 
abuse, and securing a perfect soundness, especially of the 
cerebral and nervous s^^stems. In no case did he or his 
disciples tolerate, much less invite the invasion of spirits 
upon the organism of the living. And when the seventy 



ItlllllWl l fiWj' ii . iiii i ii \}\ I ' ii'ii III lir;! " [ jii i iii|iii i ii iiii_ I _^ 1^ J.i i.iiiiJiiii.i, I , 'I ii. ■■,!lJi.,ii...„ 



EXORCISM. 295 

disciples (not having been empowered to exorcise) re- 
turned with joy, saying, " Lord, even the demons are 
subject unto us through thy name ! " he checked their 
exultation, and told them to rejoice that their own names 
were still standing in the old family record in heaven. 

The disciples were sinful men in the body, the spirits 
were sinful men out of the body ; they must cast out the 
latter for sanitary and benevolent reasons, but they 
need not exult over them. He recognizes the entire 
lower realm of spirits as antagonistic to his work ; but 
so also with the kingdoms of this world, as selfishly or- 
ganized. " The gates of Hades," he says, that is, the 
army issuing from those gates, shall not prevail. His 
last commission to his apostles does not reverse the 
policy of centuries, does not take down the barriers, 
nor sound a parley ; it is still, " Cast out the demons." 

Accordingly, wherever the apostles went they dis- 
countenanced all commerce with the dead. Thus at 
Philippi : " And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, 
a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination 
met us, which brought her masters much gain by sooth- 
saying : the same followed Paul and us, and cried, say- 
ing. These men are the servants of the most high God, 
which show unto us the way of salvation. And this did 
she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and 
said to the spirit, I command thee, in the name of Jesus 
Christ, to come out of her. And he came out the same 
hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their 
gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew 
them into the market-place unto the rulers." * 

Here was a spirit that seemed well-disposed ; did the 

apostles need this indorsement? Did they say to the 

sceptical Greeks, Here is proof of immortality stronger 

than the resurrection of Jesus? Yet the apostle was 

* Acts svi. 16-19. 



296 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

mild and gentle. For many days he apparently took no 
notice ; and when at length he did, it was more in grief 
than in anger. Candid spiritualists cannot fail to be 
struck with the infinite superiority of the Christian faith 
over the ethnic cultus at this point. 

So in the case of Simon Magus,* who was probably an 
adept in the ancient magic, and a really powerful me- 
dium. He became a convert under Philip's preaching. 
But when Peter and John visited Samaria, we read : 
" And when Simon saw that through laying on of the 
apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered 
them money, saying. Give me also this power, that on 
whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost." 
Nothing could more forcibly show the essential differ- 
ence of moral character between the two forms of spirit- 
ualism, ethnic and Christian. Nor will Christian spiritu- 
alists think the indignant rejection of his offer by the 
apostles was too severe. 

The same antagonism appears in the case of Elymas 
the sorcerer, at Paphos.f He is described as a false 
prophet of Jewish lineage, probably a specimen of 
the false prophets that play so prominent a part in 
Old Testament history. He also, it is probable, was, 
dynamically, a real medium of considerable power ; but, 
unlike Simon Magus, he assumed an anti-Christian atti- 
tude, and sought to prevent the deputy Sergius Paulus 
from becoming a convert. Now Paul was a genuine 
medium of a high order, and was controlled, not by 
low spirits, but was " filled with the Holy Spirit." We 
see then, how one medium addressed another, how a 
higher medium a lower, a Christian medium an anti- 
Christian. " O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou 
child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt 
thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ? " 
* Acts xviii. 9-24. f Acts xiii. 6. 



EXORCISM. 297 

Does this seem to any uncharitable and severe ? Yet it 
is no more so than the utterances of some mediums in 
our own day, to others of an opposite moral character, 
with which our spiritualist readers are doubtless familiar. 

Another curious illustration occurs at Ephesus, where 
Paul had labored for two years, and where in some 
cases evil spirits were cast out by aprons, or handker- 
chiefs, brought from the apostles' body. " Then certain 
^ of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call 
over them which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord 
Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul 
preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a 
Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the 
evil spirit answered and said, ' Jesus I know, and Paul I 
know ; but who are ye ? ' And the man in whom the 
evil spirit was, leaped on them, and overcame them, 
and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that 
house naked and wounded." * These Jewish opera- 
tors evidently regarded it as a kind of magical incanta- 
tion, — using the names " Jesus " and " Paul " as they 
would any other spell. 

As one result of Paul's two years' ministry at Ephesus, 
we read : " Many of them also which used curious arts 
brought their books together, and burned them before all 
men : and they counted the price of them, and found it 
fifty thousand pieces of silver." f Those books would 
now be rare curiosities, and would perhaps command ten 
times that money ; but would it not be rash to accept 
them as contributing to a revival of pure primitive 
Christianity ? 

And when the question came up whether the Christian 

converts were at liberty to attend feasts connected with 

the ancient ritual, — a question most interesting not only 

to the spiritualist, but to the student of comparative 

* Acts xix. 13-16. t Acts xix. 19. 



298 SPIRITUAL MAISEFESTATIONS. 

theology, — how did the Christian mediums decide? " But 
I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they 
sacrifice to demons and not to God: and I would not 
that ye should have fellowship with demons. Ye can- 
not drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of de- 
mons : ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and 
of the table of demons." * Here was the encounter of 
the new gospel spiritualism with the old ethnic spirit- 
ualism, the worship of the dis manibiis, the dsoig xdovLoig^ 
the spirits of the dead. Will not all spiritualists concede 
that this Christian spiritualism was of a very different 
character, and of an infinitely higher grade, than that 
which it encountered, and over which it triumphed ? 
And did it not really continue in force the ancient de- 
fensive principle of isolation as against all spirits of the 
lower sphere ? And did it not limit itself to the ma.ni- 
festations of one and the self-same spirit, however 
manifold the gifts? " There are diversities of gifts and 
diversities of operations," says the great apostolic me- 
dium, "but all these worketh that one and the self-same 
spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.'' f 
Have not spiritualists overlooked or undervalued 'this 
wonderful lesson of the true nature of spiritualism, — a 
lesson which, on their own principles, ought to be funda- 
mental to their whole practice ? 

The question then occurs, Did these ancient mediums, 
these primitive Christian spiritualists and seers, foretell a 
time when the policy of isolation from the spirit-world 
would be relaxed, or abandoned? This of course brings 
up the whole subject of eschatology, a theme too exten- 
sive to be discussed fully in our present work. A few 
suggestions only will be offered in the next chapter. 

* 1 Cor. X. 20, 21. t 1 Cor. xii. 4-11. 



ESCHATOLOGY. 299 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

ESCHATOLOGY. 

ALL existing schemes of eschatology have been based 
upon the hypothesis that the soul originates in and 
with the body ; but it is possible to look at the question 
from a different standpoint. If man is a celestial race 
in exile, — if the incarnation of the race is a defensive 
and a remedial measure, and if it is part of a grand polit- 
ical problem, so to speak, namely, the reorganization of 
the moral universe, — then, certainly, our conceptions 
of the winding-up of the present dispensation must be 
made to correspond. 

We can see that such a grand remedial system might 
for a long period be interfered with, resisted, and cor- 
rupted by those cosmocratic principalities it was de- 
signed to dislodge and supersede ; and that it might be 
necessary, while eliminating a few among mankind and 
training them to stand against world-majorities, to effect 
by centuries of disclosure the prostration of the thwart- 
ing powers. Thus the entire mechanism of the sj^stem 
would be rescued ultimately from their interference, 
and the way would be open to apply to the race e7i 
masse the full remedial influences of the system. When- 
ever that point is reached, all spiritualists will readily 
conceive that the intercourse with celestial orders might 
naturally be more free than in former ages, the heavens 
being now purged, and no longer occupied by hostile 
powers. At the same time, spiritualists can see that 



300 SPIKITXJAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

there might be a total shutting off of the lower, more 
deceptive spheres, — those by whom, as they admit, me- 
diums are often deluded and injured. The embargo 
might be rendered total, and the spirits of that lower 
sphere introduced into this world only by incarnation, 
for remedial purposes. Then the risen saints might 
naturally be expected to appear and disappear from 
time to time, wherever desired or needed. Thus those 
already perfected would be invested with political power 
over the universe by degrees, being initiated into the 
government of this world preparatory to administering 
the government of all worlds. Not that they would be 
subject to the law of gravitation ; not that they would 
live at Jerusalem, or any other terrestrial locality ; but 
that, being restored now to their native celestial mode 
of existence, they would out of that sphere, from time 
to time, appear upon the terrestrial scene. Not only is 
this conceivable, but, as the apostle expresses it, it is so 
desirable that even the inanimate creation yearns for it. 
" The earnest expectation of the creatupe waiteth for 
the manifestation of the sons of God."* 

Such a hypothesis places the whole subject of escha- 
tology on a new and higher plane. It gives us the bet- 
ter elements of the millennarian scheme, while avoid- 
ing the grossness of chiliasm. It includes the truths of 
gradualism, without denying those of catastrophism. It 
accepts the better elements of spiritualism, without em- 
bracing its extravagances. On such a hypothesis it is 
evident that the period immediately preceding the mil- 
lennial epoch might naturally be one of intense antag- 
onism ; and there might naturally be delusions of very 
great power ; and this fact leading spiritualist writers 
concede. And it is also obvious that it would be very 
natural for many very excellent and candid people to be 
deceived. There are millions of low and deceptive spirits 

* Komans viii, 19. 



ESCHATOLOGY. 301 

who might take pleasure in making honest, people think 
the millennium actually begun, — on the same princi- 
ple that, when in the body, they delighted in imposing 
upon the credulous. There are many such persons now 
living, who seem to find an exquisite enjoyment in see- 
ing how far they can deceive their fellow-men, either 
for the accomplishment of their own selfish plans, or 
merely for amusement. Such persons, as all spiritual- 
ists agree, are of the same character out of the body as 
when in it ; and it is admitted that they do in fact utter 
through certain mediums much that is false and absurd. 
Add to this, that this tendency on the part of low spirits 
to break in, either for relief, and rest, and solace, or to 
^gratify a mischievous mirthfulness, might naturally be 
taken advantage of by the cosmocracy to effect residts 
not dreamed of by " the spirits " themselves, and spirit- 
ualists will see how natural it is that good men should 
be deceived. 

Hence, when the claim is put forth that the millen- 
nium is begun, — that the resurrection is now actually 
taking place in the materializations of the day, — spirit- 
ualists ought to be on their guard ; and since they admit 
Christ and the apostles to be the strongest, purest, and 
most reliable mediums that have existed, they should 
carefully study their predictions respecting this great 
crisis. 

Now the general character of the interval between 
the gospel era and the final victory of truth on earth is 
shadowed out in the New Testament in several ways. 
It was to be an age of conflict. " Think not I am come 
to send peace on the earth," that is, as an immediate re- 
sult. The tares and the wheat must grow together. The 
leaven was to be hid in the meal. And there is not 
only a leaven of truth, but also of hj'pocrisy ; and if 
society could be gradually leavened with the former, it 



302 SPTEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

could be counter-leavened with the latter. Aside from 
these incidental allusions, there are no less than six 
main lines of prophetic indication respecting the interval 
in question. 

1. In predicting the destruction of Jerusalem, Christ 
gives some elements that stretch on beyond that event 
through the whole dispensation. The Jews, he says, 
shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jeru- 
salem shall be trodden underfoot of Gentiles till the 
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. The effect of this has 
been neutralized on many minds by his saying, " This 
generation shall not pass till all these things be ful- 
filled." They forget that "generation" is often used 
for " nation," and that Moses, in the very prophecy our 
Saviour evidently refers to, says, " They are a fro ward 
generation." Evidently the meaning is, that though 
thus smitten and scattered, the nation should still sur- 
vive. Now, carrying the view onward to the close of 
the " times of the Gentiles," Christ intimates that there 
will be a period of great tribulation and of intense de- 
ceptive agenc}^ followed by a sudden and decisive inter- 
vention of divine power, — as sudden and vivid as the 
lightning shining from east to west. 

2. It is generally conceded that the apostles and early 
Christians expected a second coming of Christ, anterior 
to any supposed epoch of a thousand years. Many have 
gone so far as to say that they expected it in their own 
lifetime. Such do not sufficiently consider the apostle's 
disclaimer of such an expectation. Having in a letter 
to the Thessalonians spoken very largely of that coming, 
he learns that he has been misunderstood by some ; he 
therefore writes a second letter, to correct that error. 
" That -ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, 
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, 
as that the day of Christ is at hand." "Let no man 



ESCHATOLOGY. 303 

deceive you," he continues, " for that day shall not 
come except there come THE apostasy first, and that 
man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition ; who op- 
poseth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, 
or that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the 
temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Re- 
member ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told 
you these things ? And now ye know what withhold- 
eth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mys- 
tery of iniquity doth already work : only he who now 
letteth will let until he be taken out of the way : and 
then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord 
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall 
destroy with the brightness of his coming : even him, 
whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all 
power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all de- 
ceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish ; 
because they received not the love of the truth, that 
they might be saved." 

Now an apostasy is gradual in its origin and develop- 
ment, and requires time. How much time, the apostle 
does not say, and may not have known ; but it is not 
likely he thought it would certainly be in his lifetime. 
The point of special importance is that the apostasy is 
represented as culminating just before the coming of the 
Lord. The man of sin, the Lawless One, is destroyed by 
that very coming of the Lord. There is no room for a 
millennium prior to that coming. The apostas}' covers 
the whole interval. And most important of all, the crisis 
is one of intense deceptive agency. The Lawless One 
comes " with all power, and signs, and lying wonders." 

Other indications of the nature of the crisis are found 
in the visions of the Apocalj'pse. Many object to the 
Apocalypse as being practically unintelligible ; but spir- 
itualists surely cannot consistently take that ground. 



804 SPIEITTJAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

John was a powerful medium and seer, and of a loving, 
heavenly, pure spirit. He was known among the Twelve 
as tlie disciple whom Jesus loved, and he was a great 
sufferer for the truth. He was an exile at this very- 
time when he received these revelations. He was in a 
state to attract the purest and highest spirits, and testi- 
fies that he was "in the Spirit," and a blessing is pro- 
nounced on those that read and hear the communica- 
tions made through him. Consistent spiritualists, there- 
fore, are bound to test those utterances with care. They 
cannot discredit the Apocalypse as a whole without 
being false to their own principles ; nor are these visions 
difficult to understand, at least in part. We may not 
be able to interpret every detail, but b}'' applying the 
principles of analogy we can gain certain general results 
of great value. 

3. Thus no one can read the events described under 
the opening of the sixth seal, without getting the idea 
of a very great and grand crisis of catastrophism, which, 
it would be easy to show, did our limits permit, re- 
lates to the close of this and the opening of the millen- 
nial era.* 

4. Another outline of the same interval is given un- 
der the trumpets, and the nations are exhibited as per- 
sisting in their idolatries until the seventh trumpet 
sounds, when there was heard a great shout : " The 
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
Lord, and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and 
ever." f 

5. Again the same general interval is traversed under 
the vials, and the seventh vial is poured out upon the 
air, the region of cosmocratic empire, and " there came 
a great voice out of. the temple of heaven from the 
throne, saying, ' It is done ! ' " | Can there be a more 
impressive symbolization of the end of the present dis- 

* Rev. vi. 12-17. t Rev. xi. 15. X Rev. xvi. 17. 



ESCHATOLOGY. 305 

pensation of cosmocratic rule, and the ushering in of a 
butter dispensation ? 

6. The same interval, or dispensation, is again out- 
lined in the emblems of the dragon, the wild beast, and 
the woman. We have already suggested that the dragon, 
or serpent, is througliout Scripture the emblem of self- 
ishly organized empire in the invisible ; the wild beast 
the emblem of the corresponding world-empire in the 
visible ; and the harlot the emblem of corrupt and self- 
ish ecclesiastical organization in all ages. We will not 
attempt any detailed exposition of these emblems, so as 
to limit them to an}^ one form of civil and ecclesiastical 
despotism, but rather regard them as constructed with 
divine ingenuity, so as to include all. Even the mystic 
sorceress upon whose forehead was a name written, 
*' Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of 
Harlots and Abominations of the Earth," we 
would not limit to one age or church, but interpret as 
including the false churches of all ages, — viewed as in 
certain great elements of character one city, however 
differing in detail. 

In this general aspect all spiritualists, one would 
think, might recognize these life-like emblems ; and the 
question is. What is the fate of the civil and ecclesi- 
astical despotisms thus shadowed out ? Are they re- 
formed ? Do they make their exit gracefully from the 
stage ? Do they die a peaceful and edifying death ? 
Quite the reverse. The wild beast is vanquished on 
a world-wide Waterloo, "the battle of the great day 
of God Almighty." The dragon is for the first time 
chained and incarcerated as a felon ; and as to Babylon, 
a mighty angel takes up a millstone and casts it into 
the sea, saying, " Thus with violence shall Babylon be 
thrown down," — not by gradualism in any form, but 
by the highest conceivable style of catastrophism. 
20 



306 SPIKITTIAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

Now the union of these six outlines, or aspects, of the 
present dispensation enhances the impression proper to 
each of them taken separately. There are many indi- 
cations that during this entire period true believers will 
be a minority, alternately assailed by persecution and 
b}^ corruption, always greatly tried in their higher and 
more ideal susceptibilities, and sustained only by a pa- 
tient cross-bearing spirit and faith in God ; and at the 
very last, just before the full " manifestation of the sons 
of God," it would seem was to be the severest ordeal of 
faith. " When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find 
faith upon the earth ? " 

Now the question for consistent spiritualists to con- 
sider is, Has the great crisis come and gone by, or is it 
only coming and near at hand ? If the latter, then the 
prohibition of all intercourse with spirits of low and 
deceptive character is in full force. Spiritualists can- 
not help feeling this. There are certain manifestations 
which they know not exactly how to account for. There 
are communications which at first sight seem to be 
good, and which profess to come from " the heavenly 
hierarchy" itself, which yet are strange. About them 
lingers an indefinable something exciting distrust. An 
inscrutable dubiousness attends them, at which the most 
implicit and enthusiastic are for the moment startled. 
Precisely at that point should be brought into use the 
oft-repeated scriptural precept, " Try the spirits." On 
this all consistent spiritualists agree. And how shall 
we test or try the spirits? Just here another admitted 
principle of the system comes in, namely, that we are to 
test or try the spirits, not merely by their professions, — 
no matter how fair, how high-sounding, or from what 
professedly high grade emanating, — but by their gen- 
eral agreement with our reason and conscience, and with 
the best experience of former ages, and by their tend- 



ESCHATOLOGY. 307 

cncy to produce good fruits in us. This principle must 
be of universal application, extending to the highest 
spirit of all, as well as to those of lowest grade. It is 
not safe for any man to take it for granted that he is 
full of the Holy Spirit.* History presents us with mel- 
ancholj'' examples of evil deeds done by fanatics who 
professed, and perhaps really believed, themselves to be 
actuated by the Holy Spirit. 

There are tests which will readily occur to every med- 
itative reader. For example, if spirits present them- 
selves in the name of departed mediums whose lives 
were pure, truthful, self-denying, — men who stood 
against the corruptions of their age, and" contended for 
those great principles on which the battle of the ages 
has turned, — if they come declaring in the name of 
those men that they have discovered that their former 
hol}^ and self-denying life was all a mistake, thus repu- 
diating the great principles for which those men lived 
and died, — all consistent spiritualists should at once dis- 
trust those spirits. How do we know but that we our- 
selves, if faithful even to martyrdom for our convictions, 
may not after our departure be represented as recant- 
ing all the most sacred beliefs of our souls ? Especially 
should this be the case when such great and good me- 
diums as all spiritualists confess John, and Paul, and 
Isaiah, and Moses — nay, even Jesus himself — to have 
been, are thus introduced as undervaluing, or even con- 
tradicting, the testimony which they sealed with their 
bl(jod. • There ought to be in the very fact such a jjrimd 
facie evidence of fraud as should throw every consistent 
spiritualist upon his guard. 

And the more magniloquent the phraseology, the more 
suspicious the message. Inflated diction, grandiloquence, 

* Gal. V. 22: "The fruit of the Spirit ia love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." 



SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

bombast, are tests by which to try spirits, both in the 
body and out. The teachings of Jesus are remarkable 
for their simplicity of style. The same is true of all the 
sacred writings. The Bible has had a healthful influ- 
ence upon the English language and literature. It has 
been remarked that Luther's translation of the Bible 
created the German language. Simplicity and perspi- 
cuity of style are not to be despised, among other tests 
of spiritual communications. The tried and tested com- 
manications of former ages — those that were tested as 
by fire, those that have been tested anew by the ordeal 
of ages — are not lightly to be thrown aside at every 
inflated utterance of mediums of to-day. That would be 
like mariners throwing overboard charts and tables of 
logarithms, and working out all the problems of navi- 
gation anew. Spiritualists, by such a course, weaken 
the very foundations of their own faith. Spirits must 
conform to the simple, well-established, central truths 
of the kingdom of God, on which personal purity and 
social well-being have depended in all ages and must 
depend in all worlds. 

And it is around about those principles (self-evident 
though they may seem) that Jesus foretold the last 
great Waterloo battle would be fought. Hence, when 
spirits come, saying virtually, "I am Christ," or bring- 
ing any other message flattering to pride or self-conceit, 
we should know that it is not in any such way Christ 
prophesied he would come. On the contrary, it does 
resemble things he said would precede his coming, — 
things that would be adopted by the cosmocratic pow- 
ers to deceive incautious and too confiding good men. 
" Believe them not," he said. " For as the lightning 
Cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, 
so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." 

If the good spiritualist is deceived it is because he has 



ESCHATOLOGY. 309 

not been true to his own avowed principles ; because he 
has undervalued the best responses of the most reliable 
mediums of long-tried worth ; because he has ignored 
their statements as to the cosmocratic intelligences and 
their methods, and has not been on his guard against 
them. He ought to reconsider the whole subject, and 
ask whether now, at this very moment, there is not more 
danger of being deluded than at any former period. Not 
only is not the cosmocracy not yet incarcerated, but, as 
any one may see who can read the signs of the times, 
they are making, by a combination of various forms of 
error and corruption, a more concentrated and for- 
midable attack on good society, in its fundamental ele- 
ments, than ever before. " Blessed is he that watcheth, 
and keepetli his garments, lest he walk naked and men 
see his shame," is Christ's warning for this very day 
and hour. 

The simple question for all who desire to be known as 
Christian spiritualists, is, whether they can really con- 
trol the movement as a whole, or whether it is swayed 
by occult forces and tendencies antagonistic to the in- 
stincts of a Christian heart. Can they lead the army, 
or will they be led in chains by it, their protests disre- 
garded, their talents, piety, and reputation used to give 
prestige and power to a movement they cannot approve ? 



810 SPIRITUAL MAKLFESTATIONS. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

PERIHELION. 

THERE are those who think the globe must be puri- 
fied by fire as preparatory to a new heavens and 
earth of righteousness. But are ashes, and scoriee, and 
lava holier than common loam and fertile soil ? Is the 
crater of an extinct volcano more pure or sacred than 
any other spot on earth? The earth is holy enough 
now, and does not need to be purged by nre. All con- 
sistent spiritualists feel that it is only the cosmos of 
human thought, and feeling, and society that needs to 
be purified, and that by spiritual fires. 

But this being granted, there are many who ask, What 
need can there be of the glorious epiphany,' or visible 
appearing of the Lord ? Is it not a return to absolutism 
and to coercion ? Is it not virtually a confession of de- 
feat on the part of truth and motives and the dispensa- 
tion of the Spirit ? And if Jesus said, under the old 
dispensation, " If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the 
dead,"' how much more may the like be said under the 
new ? To this spiritualists, if consistent with their own 
principles, ought to reply, that such an epiphany would 
not be like the rising of one from the dead to coerce by 
terror, but the descent rather of the Prince of Life from 
heaven, not to terrify the evil, but to convince and unite 
the good. It would be a " manifestation " about which 
there could be no cavil, or doubt, or denial among the 
wisest and best of men, those most desirous of knowing 



PERIHELION. 311 

the truth, those most interested in human welfare. Such 
an event would not supersede argument, motives, and 
the persuasive inward influences of the divine Spirit ; 
it would rather be (like all catastrophic elements of past 
dispensations) a foundation for new developments of 
these. As the cloven tongues of Pentecost, the rushing 
mighty wind, the gift of tongues, the gifts of healing, and 
other catastrophic phenomena, did not hinder but helped 
argument and persuasion then, so more glorious manifes- 
tations might do again. As the incarnation and resur- 
rection of Jesus and all his mighty works, and those of his 
apostles, did not abruptly break the lines of progress 
already established, but all worked in easily, and in a 
certain sense naturally, with the regular course of devel- 
opment, so a still more glorious " manifestation of the 
sons of God" might do again. As things now are, pro- 
gress is perpetually checked, thwarted, impeded, cor- 
rupted, antagonized in a thousand ways by unsuspected 
cosmocratic intermeddling. Such a " manifestation " 
might be so controlled and proportioned as to strike 
away all the hindrances and quicken and strengthen 
all the helps of progress. Instead of being an abrupt 
ending of progress, it might be as it were a gracious 
and graceful beginning of a style and rate and breadth 
of progress so new as to cause all former progress to 
seem scarce worthy the name. 

Of Messiah's first coming, ancient seers had said, " He 
shall come down like rain upon new-mown fields, as 
showers that water the earth." " He will not break the 
bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax." " He shall 
gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his 
bosom, and gently lead those that are with young." 
All these images, denoting extreme gentleness and del- 
icac}-, were fulfilled, while at the same time there was a 
prodigious expenditure, first and last, of what we have 



812 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

ventured to call catastrophic force. Even so it may be 
again. The epiphany, or " manifestation of the sons 
of God," may be more glorious than our most exalted 
imagination has dared to dream, and yet it may work in 
so smoothly as not to disturb the beat of pendulum in 
the observatories of the world, or arrest the blooming of 
the most delicate floweret on the verge of Alpine glaciers. 

As the mighty works of Jesus, by himself, by the 
twelve, and by the seventy, — those reduplications of 
himself all over Galilee and Judea during his brief 
earthl}^ career, while going about incognito, as it were, — 
did not hinder his teaching the people, and developing 
spiritual truth and motive, but rather helped, so the same 
may be true should he resume that work, which was 
interrupted by his death, not incognito and in mortal 
form, but in unveiled celestial beauty and immortal 
vitality. 

Many have felt an insuperable repugnance to the idea 
of the local residence of Christ at Jerusalem, and the 
reinstitution of sacrifices and other features of the mil- 
lennarian scheme as supposed to be held by some. But 
spiritualists can consistently dispense with the idea of 
any such localization, or return to "beggarly elements," 
while still retaining the conception of free intercourse of 
mortals with immortals at all times and in all places, ac- 
cording to laws not now fully understood, but then to 
be fully revealed. 

It is indeed a captivating dream that truth and motive 
should gradually win the day, without any new elements 
of catastrophism. Each mind, or class of minds, that 
has thought out a system of truth and of orderly 
practice, is fascinated with the idea of seeing that sys- 
tem gradually prevail and displace all others, and be the 
bond and benediction of a benighted world. All will 
probably admit the possibility of such a result given 



PERIHELION. 313 

Tinlimited time in the future. But ancient seers and 
modern seers seem to unite in the prognostication of 
something more satisfying to the benevolent heart than 
such an indefinitely protracted struggle. The omens are 
of a crisis, the end of a dispensation, — call it from one 
point of view the Christian, or call it from another point 
of view the anti-Christian dispensation, — the omens, 
by ancient mediums and by modern, are of a crisis. 

If indeed the best men were united in religion, 
science, art, reform, and sociology generally, we might 
be content to wait, without the heart-sickness of hope 
deferred ; but the difficulty is that the very best men the 
world over do not and can not agree, either in politics, 
science, or religion, and the conceded progress of the 
age does but increase their divergence. Comparative 
theology finds good men and wise men in every land, 
under all the great ethnic religions. There are very 
good and learned Jews. There are sincere Christians of 
eminent learning in the Roman, Greek, and Oriental 
communions. There are equally sincere and learned 
Christians in all the different Protestant communions. 
There are many benevolent and cultivated minds in that 
large portion of the community that declines to call 
itself Christian, or even decidedly theistic. If all these 
could be gathered together, — a congress of mutual help, 
— one can see bow their power over the masses might 
be redoubled. If they could agree on any fundamental 
of religion or politics, faith or works, the result would 
be sublime. The Divine SpMt might use them, thus 
harmonious, with grand effect. One might chase a 
thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. But sup- 
pose on every proposition possible in religion, finance, 
science, or reform, they stand equally divided, in point- 
blank opposition to each otitjer, the Spirit of God himself 
cannot use them for progress. Mr. Finney said, when 



314 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

he tried to have revivals in Boston, " The churches here 
have put the Holy Ghost into a strait-jacket." It is a 
rude way of saying what Jesus said to the leaders of 
antagonistic sects in Israel, " Ye shut up the kingdom of 
heaven against men." * Not that they intended so to 
do, but that such was the effect of their divisions. 

The affecting and afflicting thought is, that none of 
these great and good men want to obstruct or hinder ; 
they are all earnestly desirous of a perfect state of soci- 
ety on earth ; but what a waste of power ! what a waste 
of intellect ! what a waste of time and emotion ! Let 
us estimate the mere waste of production, of life, of 
time, of brain-power, and of wealth, by war, and the re- 
sult is appalling. Yet the wars of modern times, as M. 
Cousin remarks, are only the expression of the collision 
of ideas. Christendom is on the verge of general bank- 
ruptcy by reason of Alps on Andes of war-debts, in- 
curred because good men cannot agree on the simplest 
problems of faith and good works. 

The great ecclesiastical, philosophical, and political sys- 
tems of Christendom (to say nothing of ethnic systems) 
hold each other at bay like hosts at push of pike, — a kind 
of perpetual drawn battle. Meanwhile, deprived of their 
natural leaders, the lower and more ignorant masses 
send up hoarse murmurs, and heave with a deep ground- 
swell under the breath of cosmocratic influences, and 
the horizon grows dark with portents of coming tempest. 
Jesus saw just a little way ahead all the horrors of that 
siege in which a nation, by the fury of party and the 
madness of zealots, committed suicide. It requires but 
a moderate degree of natural forecast to see before 
Christendom an infinitely worse fate for precisely the 
same reason. Good men are divided and their influence 
neutralized, and there is no reconciler. The breach 

* Matt, xxiii. 13. 



PERIHELION. 315 

grows wider, and the enemy thunders at the gates of 
liberty and faith, and the torch will soon be thrown into 
the holy of holies. 

Now, all spiritualists, if consistent, can comprehend 
that the complete shutting off of deceptive spirits, high 
and low, would simplify the problem, since it would 
leave only the innate development-forces of humanity 
itself to be dealt with. And they can also comprehend 
the effect upon good men of an actual, indisputable 
"manifestation," in glorious form, of the Lord Jesus. 
Conceive, for example, the effect, the logical and neces- 
sary effect, on the mind of the Jews all over the world, 
if the)'- should see substantially what Saul of Tarsus saw 
oji the road to Damascus. They would say what he 
said. The conviction would be set home to their under- 
standings, " Then we have been under a mistake all this 
while." Then there would be a chance for the still 
small voice to say, "Come and let us reason together." 
And suppose the)^ should "look on him whom they 
pierced, and mourn," and be forgiven, cannot all spir- 
itualists see what an effect that would logically produce 
on ail nations ? Can we consistently resist the argument 
of tUe ancient medium, Paul, " If the casting them away 
was the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiv- 
ing them be but life from the dead ? " 

Spiritualists, if consistent with their own principles, 
must see that in this way, without terror, without re- 
course to mere brute force, by simple conviction of the 
reason through natural laws then first fully unfolded and 
exemplified, there might be produced a true harmony and 
co-operation of all good men. That harmony will never 
come by making war on churches, and creeds, and sects, 
— a process which only increases the discord, and waste 
of brain-power and heart-power. Harmony will never 
come by destructive criticism tearing the Bible to pieces. 



316 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

Nor will harmony ever come, either, by endeavoring to 
force the peculiarities of any one sect upon all others; least 
of all will it come by an uninspired compromise between 
Christianity and ethnic religions, giving us only one 
more theology, and that not superlative. But all spirit- 
ualists will, if consistent, see that such a harmony as is 
needed would be logically attainable by such a glorious 
" manifestation of the sons of God," considered simply 
as .a ground or foundation for the full outpouring of the 
Holy Spirit. Once shut out and bar out all deceiving 
spirits, cosmocratic or others, whose influence is the 
more potent in proportion as it is unsuspected, and who 
have abused and thwarted and perverted everything ; se- 
quester them, purge the air, seal them up to deceive good 
men no more, fill their places by a class trained to meek- 
ness, self-denial, and sympathy with Christ ; let Christ 
appear from time to time wherever needed, — how soon 
would all good men agree ? How easy then to sway 
the masses, — for the masses love to be swayed ; hero- 
worship is natural, especially where heroes are heroic 
— as in the case supposed they would be. How easy, 
then, to rescue this material system from misconcep- 
tion and abuse! 

Suppose for a moment science were privileged to ask 
Jesus in person a few questions — would any distin- 
guished scholar still be likely-to say there might be a 
world in which two and two make five ? And would 
any eminent academician continue to seem to question 
the axioms of geometry, and undermine the foundations 
even of mathematical science ? And would any great 
naturalist long continue to say: " In the interests of sci- 
entific clearness, I object to say that I have a soul, when 
I mean all the while that my organism has certain men- 
tal functions, which, like the rest, are dependent on its 
molecular composition and come to an end when I die ; 



PERIHELION. 317 

and I object still more to affirm that I look to the future 
life, when all I mean is that the influence of my doings 
and sayings will be more or less felt by a number of 
people after the physical components of that organism 
are scattered to the four winds " ? 

Let spiritualists reflect on the actual facts of the case. 
Let them see the paralyzing effects of the divisions 
among leading men of first-rate abilities, education, and 
character. Let them see the waste of enthusiasm, the 
waste of power, and the painful sense of discouragement 
resulting. Some good men are dissatisfied with theol- 
ogy ; but they are, after all, no better satisfied with 
science. The conventional belief is abhorrent to them. 
But neither Atheism nor Pantheism contents them. 
They are driven towards a state so nearly resembling 
insanity (for if the denial of the axioms of geometry and 
arithmetic be not a token of insanity, what is ?) as to 
suggest the inquiry. Are not the cosmocratic powers, in 
their desperation, really striking at the fundamentals of 
reason ? Are they not aiming to drive the leaders of 
civilization crazy, in order that they may unchain the 
wild beasts, and bring on the general overturn and 
boundless anarchy ? 

Materialism, indeed, soothes remorse for a while, since 
the idea of guilt or ill-desert is incompatible with the 
merely mechanical conception of human volition. But 
the philanthropist and reformer is not made happy by 
such a belief. On the contrary, he expresses at times 
the deepest unhappiness, and asks whether life is worth 
living. He may be a very sincere reformer, and yet he 
may say : " I will conclude with a summary' of my con- 
victions. There is no benevolence, design, conscious- 
ness, and intelligence in what we call Nature. I feel no 
gratitude for existence, but the contrary. If all the 
world could have been mine, nothing could have per- 



318 SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

suaded me, could the choice of existence have been of- 
fered me, to accept it. I am of opinion that if there 
were a God, we should have more to forgive him than 
he to forgive us. I point to crime, to pain, to tempests, 
to famines, wars, earthquakes, and so on, forever, to jus- 
tify my conclusion that we have nothing to hope for — 
extinction of being is our destiny. The human race 
will cease to exist, and so best." 

All consistent spiritualists can see that such despair 
would be cheered and cured in a moment, if it saw 
what Saul of Tarsus saw. And if good men the 
world over were united, and sat clothed and in their 
right minds at Jesus' feet, there would be no trouble 
with the masses. Physical health wonld soon be per- 
fected, the family reconsecrated, society rightly edified, 
laws, governments, worship, social institutions through- 
out idealized, and human society pervaded with sweet 
heavenly influences. Then into such a world, by the 
regular and healthful process of reincarnation or nat- 
ural resurrection, pour in the tide of population, till all 
that ever claimed the human name since Adam, or before 
Adam, shall have experienced the benign restorative 
influences of Messiah's reign. And beyond that, when 
the work of rescue an^ renovation is complete, and the 
exiled race is one with itself and its Lord, then the final 
reorganization of the entire moral universe, and man 
invested with supreme dominion, the interrupted work 
of creation resumed, new intelligent orders summoned 
into being, and the happy kingdom of God expanding in 
numbers, and increasing in bliss forever and ever. Such 
a belief, even if we dignify it by no higher name than 
a hypothesis, is more cheering than, as we have just 
seen, the materialistic hypothesis sometimes proves it- 
self. It is indeed more than cheering to those who are 



PERIHELION. 319 

able to yield it a cordial assent, and to hold it with a 
calm and tranquil persuasion of its substantial truth ; 
(^that is, in its main features, and allowing for errors of 
detail ;) to such, it fills the mind with joy, and at times 
with rapture, when faith is clear and the vision un- 
clouded, — when one rises, as it were, and sits with Christ 
in heavenly places. And at all times it diffuses through 
the soul a sense of certainty and of peace, which is, 
perhaps, more desirable than ecstasy, because it fits one 
for all the lowly duties of every-day life. 

There are times, indeed, in almost every life when 
divine rapture, like wine, seems almost necessary. Such 
are crises of agonizing effort ; of painful endurance ; of 
■martyrdom ; of darkness and doubt ; of temptation ; 
of sudden anguishful bereavement. Then foretastes 
of the glory are vouchsafed ; and we cry, like Simon, 
" Lord, it is good to be here ; let us make three taber- 
nacles ! " We naturally long for these exalted frames. 
We would intoxicate ourselves forever with the heavenly 
nepenthe, and this would not be wise, nor comport with 
the general character of the dispensation under which 
our lot is cast. The average experience of our pilgrim- 
age must be more equable, more commonplace, more 
commensurate with the elementary conditions of private, 
domestic, and social need. And it is in the resolute 
performance of humble tasks and self-denying duties — 
the tasks and duties lying just within the natural rela- 
tionships of home and country, that the best and most 
certain test is found both of our own spirit, and of any 
spirit witnessing with ours. 

We need not go far to seek for crosses, crosses of 
artificial structure, imported crosses ; we have but to 
take up the rude, home-made crosses of every-day life. 
If we are made really humble and contrite, if we are 



320 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

more sincere and truthful, if we are practically more 
disinterested, then we have reason to think that the 
spirit that is with us and in us is indeed the Holy Spirit. 
And if with our utmost strength we address our prayer 
to Him alone, that he would deliver us from the spiritual 
unchastity of pride and excessive love of human ap- 
plause, and from every corrupt feeling and every delu- 
sive idea, and impart to us healthy fortitude to endure 
hardness as good soldiers, we have reason to believe we 
shall be heard. Our bodies even will become temples 
for His abode. Whatever may be true as regards the 
second coming of Christ, this form of spiritual mani- 
festation may be more common than it is ; and it may be, 
all circumstances considered, the purest, highest, most 
desirable form possible to this dispensation. If com- 
munion with a departed saintly spirit, or with an angel 
or archangel, would be desirable, how much more with 
the highest spirit of all, whose name {Paraclete)^ un- 
translatable in our tongue, suggests a monitor voice of 
love ever at our side, ever calling us, ever comforting, 
ever stimulating and instructing us? This Presence 
we need not go far to seek. We need not ascend, nor 
descend, nor cross continent or ocean, to find him, who 
is with us here and now, in the every-day concerns of 
life, — at the forge, in the shop, in the nursery, in the 
thronged mart, — ever ready to reveal himself as our 
soul's exceeding joy. 

This is health indeed, not merely to cherish ideas con- 
cerning God, but to know him by his own self-revealing, 
self-manifesting power of Love. He that loveth is born 
of God, and knoweth God, for God is love. It is Love's 
own absolute self the soul pants for as the hart pants for 
the water-brooks. It is his very self inbreathed, as it 
were, into ourself, however effected, with open vision 



PERIHELION. 321 

or without, in the body or out of the body, which we 
yearn for as better than life. We see the infinite beauty 
everywhere, but it is veiled. We come near the intense 
effulgence, but it is hid from us. " My soul foUoweth 
hard after thee ! " we cry. " O Lord, I beseech thee 
show me thy glory ! " 

" O when shall the veil be removed, 
And around me Thy brightness be poured ! " 

This is the real homesickness of the human race, 
though, alas, they know it not I Some have found out 
the truth. Some have heard him say, " I am thy por-' 
tion and thine exceeding great reward ; " and they have 
lain still like a babe on its mother's breast. They are 
quieted forever. '^ They hunger no more, neither thirst 
any more." You may see them in the most menial sta- 
tions of life, performing the humblest tasks. But, " The 
peace of God that passeth understanding keeps their 
heart and mind." They feel the attraction of the cen- 
tral orb ; they know they are moving on the homeward 
track ; they tremble with presentiments of what that 
beacific vision may be; — but even now they are not 
orphans, for God is with them. As the balloon struggles 
against the cords that confine it to earth, *so do they 
sway upward and heavenward. As it was with Jesus, 
so it is with them, as life wears on and the shadows 
lengthen, and the time of their departure is at hand. 
" O Father," they cry, "glorify thou me with the glory 
which I had with thee before the world was." There is 
a certain incandescence of soul produced by intense 
love which powerfully affects the body. Even earthly 
affection, in its purest forms, illumines and transfigures 
the countenance. But the Love of Loves, when he re- 
veals himself, produces an inward ardor, permeating the 
21 



322 SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS. 

dull tabernacle with cherubic radiance ; an ardor which, 
if carried to its height, must lay the frail form as dead 
at His feet. And is not this the secret of the glory of 
the spiritual body, that it will simply coruscate from 
within, inflamed by His contact ? As the star, long 
circling round its remote orbit, rushes blazing to its 
perihelion, so the exiled soul, long absent from its God, 
rushes incandescent to His Presence, to go no more out 
forever. 



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